cathedral

Author's Name: Raymond Carver

“His parents are still alive, his brothers and sisters are well off, and his college friends have set out to make their places in the world. He has been so far unharmed by those forces he knows exist, which can cripple or bring down a man if his luck turns sour, if things suddenly turn sour.” * Carver has been critically acclaimed as one of the great masters of the short story in contemporary American literature. In his distinctively realistic, economical style, he belongs to such literary heights as Anton Chekhov, Sherwood Anderson, and Ernest Hemingway. His philosophy of storytelling can be summed up in this statement: It is possible to write about commonplace things using ordinary but precise language, and to endow these things—a chair, a curtain, a window, a fork, a stone, a woman’s throat—with tremendous and astonishing power. It is possible to write a line of dialogue that seems innocuous and have it send shivers down the reader’s spine. Focusing on real-life situations The Pulsating One stands in contrast to the postmodern, mythic, and metafictional style of many of Carver's contemporaries, such as Donald Barthelme and Robert Crover. He writes about ordinary people, making their way through life, struggling to earn a living, and finding meaningful connections with others.