This is a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. The stories are written in a sparse style and are the type of story that stays with you a while after reading it. I should also mention that some of them are oddly disturbing (and one in particular is outright disturbing). For this reason, I only read one or two at a time.
I didn't read all of the stories -- there are 30+ in the collection but sort of picked my way through. "A Small, Good Thing" was my favorite and one that had a more redemptive ending. I believe that the stories are in chronoligical order or loosely arranged that way at least. Carver was a severe alcoholic for the first 10 years of his writing career and then sober for the last 10. Over time, his style changes and I found myself wondering how much of that -- must have been a good amount -- was affected by his sobriety and how much was his style and perspective evolving.
I didn't read all of the stories -- there are 30+ in the collection but sort of picked my way through. "A Small, Good Thing" was my favorite and one that had a more redemptive ending. I believe that the stories are in chronoligical order or loosely arranged that way at least. Carver was a severe alcoholic for the first 10 years of his writing career and then sober for the last 10. Over time, his style changes and I found myself wondering how much of that -- must have been a good amount -- was affected by his sobriety and how much was his style and perspective evolving.