Post Magazine: Raymond Carver Country

A writer visits the Pacific Northwest to explore the last haunts of thegreat American short story author Raymond Carver. What he finds, in thelandscapes and characters of the Port Angeles area, are some of theunforgettable insights and images that captivate Carver's work.

Bill Booth shares his discoveries in the Fall Travel issue of Washington Post Magazine.

William Booth is a staff writer for The Post's Style section and isbased in Los Angeles.

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Bill Booth: Hello out there. We're hear to chat a bit about short story writer Raymond Carver and the Olympic Peninsula and the town of Port Angeles, where Carver spent the last years of his too short life.

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Bethesda, MD: My high school English teacher once told us this about Raymond Carver:

A British mystery writer would say the criminal had a flea-bitten cur with patches of mange

Dashiell Hammett would say the criminal had a lousy dog

Raymond Carver would say "the man had a pet."

Do you think that's a fair way to describe the sparseness of Carver's text, which to a high schooler really did seem pretty spare.

Bill Booth: You had a clever English teacher. I would expand on that a bit. Carver would probably use the man's name, use a conservational, ordinary voice and be more specific. Like: Mel kept a dog. It is also interesting that while Carver has often been described as a minimalist, he didn't think that accurate. His widow, Tess Gallagher, would say he was a precisionist. Also, in his later work, in the collection "Cathedral," he is much more lush. At least by Carver standards.

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Arlington, Va: Hi Bill,

Really enjoyed the story. Other than the Corner House, did you eat anywhere else in PA? I had a great meal this summer at Bella Italia, really fun local spot with a great wine list. Did you check out the cool general store? PA feels like I imagine Alaska might feel.

Bill Booth: Yes indeed, I ate pretty well in Port Angeles. At Bella Italia too. They had this amazing black kale with garlic. Funny that you should mention Alaska. Port Angeles feels like some of those SE Alaska towns, like Ketchikan. Not quite as wild and wooly, but that same feeling of being just at the very edge of the map.

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Santa Fe, NM: Great shots! I have been a fan of Ray Carver for many years. But shouldn't the one taken of the ferry read "Victoria Ferry"??

W. Smith

Bill Booth: I'm sure Bob Adelman, the photographer, would be glad to hear that. He knew and photographed Carver while he was alive, as you know from his picture of Ray by the strait. He is also the photographer who collaborated with Tess on the picture book, Carver Country, which has lots of images from Yakima and some from Port Angeles. There's also a photo he took of one of Carver's notebooks, which he kept in his bathrobe pocket, which says WRITE STORIES. I kinda like that.

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Oregon: I think we all have our favorite works by Carver, but I'd be interested in what you consider your favorite Carver and/or his best work.

And Port Angeles is an incredible setting and environment. I nearly moved there myself.

Bill Booth: I like most of his short stories, some of them knock the wind out of me, and some I like because the characters are so very human but also mysterious. I like the stories because I think they remind you to pay attention. That theres a lot going on right there below the surface. But some quick favorites: Menudo. What We Talk About. I Could See the Smallest Things. Viewfinder.

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Rochester, NY: Hey, great piece on Raymond Carver! I really enjoyed it.

My question is this: Carver, as you put it, is credited with breathing life back into the short story form? Is there much life in the form nowadays? If what I read in the New Yorker is any indication, the answer is "no". What interesting writers today are pushing the form forward as Carver did (even if they haven't been as successful or influential)?

Thanks again. Great story.

Bill Booth: Thanks. I haven't been reading short fiction lately, so I'm the wrong guy to ask. Because I was working on this little Carver thing, I did go out and buy Chekhov's short stories, because Carver was a fan. They're just fanstically tooled. I could see why Carver dipped into them for inspiration. Regarding your question, if any one posts a suggestion, I'll put in up now on the chat.

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Stowe, Vermont: No question, just a thank you for the wonderful article and photo's. It was a joy to read and remember this hugely talented writer and complex and interesting human being. When I read the comment by Tess Gallagher about nineteen years it took my breath away. Nineteen years, how is that possible. I hope your article introduces Ray to new readers as well as having brought a tear and a smile to old ones.

Bill Booth: I had the same reaction. 19 years? Really? How? He died at 50. I would have really liked to have read him going forward. Reading his poetry, which he spent most of time on in the later years, there's something different going on. He might also have tried a novel. But he complained that he didn't have the attention span for long form writing, that he needed to get things down on paper in a sitting or two, and then he would go over and over it. Who knows, though, he was sober, he was settled, he had some money. Maybe his best was behind him or right around the corner.

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Washington, D.C.: hey there, i don't have a question, just a quick comment...the piece on carver made my sunday. the writing, both yours and carver's, was absolutely gripping. i'm a sophomore journalism major/creative writing minor at george washington u. the article reminded me why i want to be a writer. thanks

Bill Booth: Thanks. I was around your age when Carver appeared on my screen. A lot of my fellow English literature major types in Austin Texas got into him. It was the 1980s, a somewhat florid decade in some ways, and RC was stripped down for speed. When the Post asked me to write about him and the Olympic Peninsula, I hadn't really read him in years, and so I was happy to know that he wasn't just a college crush. He had legs. In fact, like a lot of writers, he's better for me now, now that naturally I am experienced many of my own limitations and laments.

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RE: Pushing short story form...: Certainly Amy Hempel is making an art of the possibilities of a short story. Mary Robison. Mark Richard. Miranda July.

These writers push huge ideas in the smallest of spaces, pushing life in microcosm. The late Grace Paley, for one, wrote only short stories (and poems). She always believed that stories should seek to capture the "whole of life" not just a slice of it.

Bill Booth: Here's some short storyists, as promised.

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Los Angeles, Calif: Thanks for taking questions. Mine's just a comment. A friend of mine recommended Carver to me many years ago; two of the more memorable I read are "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," and another, the name escapes me now, about a down-on-his luck man having a garage sale. And some of Carver's poems in "All of Us," are amazing. I was always struck by the poignancy and sympathy he was able to imbue his characters with using such spare prose. He once said that in a short story "every word counts" - that was an important lesson for me in how to read a short story.

Bill Booth: I recommend his poetry, too. And isn't "What We Talk About.." just the bomb. Mel the cardiologist passing around the gin bottle at the kitchen table as the sun goes down. Carver was very tuned into Chekhov's comment -- I think Chekhov, yes? -- along thelines of if a short story writer put a gun above the fireplace mantle at the beginning of his story then somebody better take it down and shot it. That everything there needs to be there. Which is why when you read a killer short story, you can take your time and go slowly, because it should all matter.

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Reston, VA: Thanks for writing an excellent article. Can you tell us what happened to his children and his first wife? Were they involved in managing his literary assets at all, if not why? Did his children get his literary genes at all?

Bill Booth: His first wife Maryann Burk Carver is alive and well and wrote a memoir of their lives together called "What It Used to Be Like." Its out now and if you're into Carver, it's pretty good. His kids, I don't know too much about. They're not writers. He was not such a wonderful father.

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Silver Spring, MD: Hi. I'm someone who had never read Carver, though I'd read other writers who occasionally referred to him. I was lucky enough to get to the article on Saturday, and went to the library and got out some of his short stories. I've read a few, and was so impressed with the clean simplicity. I really enjoyed the article. Thanks for the introduction.

Bill Booth: Well that makes my day. They are just spanking clean aren't they? He reworked them over and over but managed some how not to over work them.

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Bill Booth: Oh, and the short story the chatter asked about was "Why Don't You Dance?" Its in the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Thanks all.

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