Two of my “rules” of reading (and there really are no hard and fast rules) are that I will try to read books recommended by people whose writing I like; and if a book or author come up more than once in a positive way in a short period of time, I try to read something they’ve written. I guess I take it as a sign that it’s something I should pick up. Both of these happened recently with Raymond Carver, the great American short story writer. So, I googled “what’s the best book by Raymond Carver?” And, more than once, Cathedral came up. So, Cathedral it was.
I want to start with a couple of the quotes on the back of the book, as they tell you something about Carver’s writing that I would struggle to do with more words. “Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty…his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart.” And, “Clear hard language so right that we shiver at the knowledge we gain from it.” The truth of these descriptions cannot be overtold. Carver’s writing is gritty, emotional, painful, real, straight and honest. There’s nothing flowery about it, no extras or even color. Each story explores the most painful parts of what it means to be human. In some, there is a touch of redemption, but as with human life, most often, there is none. Carver’s use of words is as straight as the content of his stories, though I wouldn’t describe it as plain or even sparse. He only tells what needs to be said.
The stories are generally not very long, and often read more like vignettes that complete narratives. I often felt like I was walking in the middle of something, and needed some pages to get my bearings. I similarly ended stories that didn’t come to clear endings. Resolution was clearly not part of Carver’s mandate as a writer.
While I will most certainly recommend this collection as an incredible piece of storytelling and writing, I should note that I often found the stories so painful that I couldn’t read more than one at a time, and had to toggle between Cathedral and other books to let things settle before I embarked upon the next story. It was the realism in these stories that kept drawing me back. Carver’s ability to uncover both such raw emotion and clear humanity seems to me to be the kernel of beauty at the heart of his writing.
Just Because I Liked It: