It first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981. He refused, though, to consider himself as part of any category. Cathedral is perhaps the most famous and most anthologized story by American writer Ramond Carver. The fight against stereotypes and prejudices expressed in the face of the. The story shows the development of the character that faces such a challenge in life. It perfectly reflects the United States of America with its diverse culture.
This group included Richard Ford and Tobias Wolff, two of Carver’s closest acquaintances. The story Cathedral by Raymond Carver gives a variety of characters and opinions on different topics. His style fell under the umbrella of dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Thanks to the immediacy and simplicity of the prose, Carver makes the reader feel and measure himself, inviting him to witness without judgment.Ĭritics have defined Carver as a minimalist. Also, the twists in the plot are countless.Ĭarver presents bare facts, leaving space for the reader to complete each story with hope or mistrust, compassion or despair. Thanks to his precision in creating the scenes, Carver has a unique way of describing characters, giving priority to their psychology without losing concreteness. Narrated in the first person, every Cathedral story’s real protagonists are the big and small struggles we all encounter in our relationships. In some stories, the moment of crisis is more vivid (A Small Good Little Thing, The House of Chef), while the author only suggests it in others. Sometimes this happens at the beginning, sometimes only at the end. Each story in Cathedral recalls the daily life of average people in their normal routines, as an unknown, impending doom casts an encroaching shadow. The last one, which gave the collection’s name, became part of the Best American Short Stories.Ĭarver described himself as “ inclined toward brevity and intensity,” and this is what immediately captivates the reader. The last book by Raymond Carver, Cathedral, is a collection of twelve short stories. Carver, often compared to Ernest Hemingway, is known for his bleak and stark portrayals of working-class people trapped in states of isolation. Cathedral : stories Author: Raymond Carver Edition: Vintage Contemporaries ed View all formats and editions Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, 1989, 1983.
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