Killing time Book

One of the all time great collections of short stories. Seven more situations Carver uses to prise insight, weird humour, beauty and horror our of our lives, the lives we live but never volunteered for in the first place :



1. "Boxes". A man's mother continually moves around the country. This drives him crazy. It would though, wouldn't it?

2. "Whoever was using this bed". a couple are woken at three in the morning by a wrong number which keeps ringing back. They give up sleep and have a long rambling conversation in which they realise they're both frightened of illness, death and various other things

3. "Intimacy". A writer drops in unannounced on his ex-wife. She insults him vociferously and at great length. ("Then you held me up for display and ridicule in your so-called work"). He asks for forgiveness and gets it.

4. "Menudo". A man is having an affair with his neighbour's wife. And he's sorry for it.

5. "Elephant". A guy's life is made unbearable by having to continually bail out his ex-wife, his mother, his son and his brother from their financial catastrophes. .

6. "Blackbird Pie". a really really aggravating guy gets a 23 page letter from his wife (with whom he is living!) announcing that she's going to leave him. He keeps claiming that the letter is not in her handwriting.

7. "Errand". The death of Chekhov.

If you haven't read Raymond Carver you should give him a go. This is a great place to start. Five stars only because they don't allow me a sixth.