If you have not read Raymond Carver’s short stories you do not know American Literature. Reading Carver is like sitting down for coffee with Ernest Hemmingway, but instead of hearing gallant stories about bumming around in Paris or running with the bulls in Spain that drool machismo and make you want to go out and slaughter a pig with your own two hands for dinner, you hear stories from small towns and small children. These are the kind of stories that you remember pieces of, not like you remember them later, but like while you are reading you think, yeah, I remember that! That’s exactly what it felt like- man, how does he do that?! And then on the next page he is doing it again.

Carver’s Where I’m Calling From is a touching and dramatic set of stories that dig deep into the heart of what it means to be a young boy in a small town. And Carver’s emotional imagery and skill for assuming the vantage point of the child, from descriptions of things to the wants and needs involved, is masterful. When you get done reading a story you feel like you just listened to a 14 year old think- and you have no idea what to do with such brutal honesty.

One story sees the narrator playing hooky from school and heading down to the river to go fishing. While spending his day there he runs into another boy doing the same thing, and they hatch an elaborate plan to catch what they are both certain is the biggest fish they have ever seen. After a few classic pages of what it’s like to be 14 and trying to work out who’s alpha, they have to decide what to do with what they’ve caught- which is a lesson in psychology for anyone who wants to know how to negotiate the upper hand. And what happens when the narrator arrives home is even more telling about the pecking order of things- both around who is in charge and what is important.

Another story sees a father being called to a meeting down the street to answer for his son about a bike. It’s one of those classic neighborhood disputes that gets the parents out to sit down and figure out what to do about the kids as far as discipline goes and what follows has little to do with discipline and everything to do with power, power-struggles, and how blame and responsibility are assessed in the real world. The argument moves to another level when the fathers start to converse, and that’s where the decisions are made.

What is important, who’s in charge, and what to do about each other are all constant themes in Carver’s work, which is always emotionally honest and brutally in your face. It is impossible not to recognize pieces of your own childhood and the struggles of growing up in these stories. I kept it by my bedside and read one every night- it’s a great way to spend a few weeks.

Photo Credit: PinkMoose (via Flickr under CCL)