The Stories of Raymond Carver: A Critical Study by Kirk Nesset (review)

186 Western American Literature America underwent drastic change. Cather’s first novel appeared during pros­ perity as machines replaced the hard work that had characterized the pioneer period. But before Cather’s career ended, America had been involved in a world war, had faced a major depression, and had noted diverse international political movem ents. Sally Peltier Harvey’s book places Cather’s novels in historical and social context as she exam ines the theme of the American Dream in Cather’s works. D efining the American Dream is difficult, but Harvey, referring to it as a “cul­ tural artifact,” relies on a common conception of individual achievem ent and material success to show how Cather’s novels and four later short stories inter­ sect with this “artifact,” both in plot and in the context o f the time of their pub­ lication. D eveloping Cather’s work chronologically, Harvey groups as many as four novels together in a chapter. The strongest of these covers A lexan der’ s B ridge, O Pioneers!, The Song o f the Lark, and My Antonia. In other chapters, I som e­ tim es felt Harvey was stretching too far to make her point. To defend her stance requires a large amount of outside support that exam ines the contemporary scene. W hile Harvey does offer som e such support, a reader needs more depth to understand how her thesis continues to apply to Cather’s full career as a nov­ elist. Because Cather wrote at a volatile time, such an examination is needed. W hile Cather is often accused of living in the past and being unfavorably dis­ posed to the future, she was clearly aware o f shifts in American society and values, and how individuals endured and were challenged by change. To ignore the social and historical context of her work is to miss a level o f richness that illustrates how Am erican her work is, not only in its depiction o f American life, but in how that depiction fits within the larger scale of American society. For this reason, Harvey’s book is important as it leads readers to see how Cather’s work reflects American culture. BECKY FABER U niversity o f Nebraska-Lincoln The Stories o f Raym ond C arver: A C ritical Study. By Kirk N esset. (Athens: Ohio U niversity Press, 1995. 131 pages, $34.95/$14.95.) In this slight volum e, Kirk N esset explores the entire fictional canon of Raymond Carver in four chapters, quoting extensively from previously pub­ lished interviews, review s, and literary criticism . N esset discusses the themes o f Carver’s fiction in broad terms of love and language in the first two chap­ ters, of insularity, self-enlargem ent, and communication in the latter two. He provides a bibliography of nearly two hundred entries and an index, chiefly cit­ ing biographical and geographical entries. Overall, the study resem bles a w ell- Reviews 187 conceived graduate thesis that proves the scholar’s fam iliarity with the stan­ dard literary and critical works without contributing significant new interpre­ tation of Carver’s fiction. Introducing the study, N esset places Carver in the tradition of Hemingway, Anderson, O’Hara, Cheever, Kafka, Turgenev, and Chekov, claim ing for Carver’s fiction a moral center w hile it explores the disenchantments of post­ modern humanity. Chapter One, “ ‘This Word L ove’: Sexual Politics and Silence in Will You P lease Be Quiet, P lease ?” explores particularly the force o f love and the issue of the lim itations of language as they appear in Carver’s first volum e of fiction. Characters find that love com plicates and dominates their lives, often com ­ pelling them to engage in sexual politics that further encumber them and lead them to ineffectual use of language or to silence. Even so, these characters usu­ ally continue their struggles rather than surrender to them. In the second chapter, “The Power o f Style in What We Talk A bout When We Talk About L ove,” N esset responds to the labeling of Carver as a m inimal­ ist w hile claim ing that Carver...