Review of Short Cuts by Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver masters the art of effective story telling in this poignant collection of fictional short stories and one poem. He artfully demonstrates a twist on the proverb, "Nothing in life is free," as his characters reveal that "short cuts" don't exist: short cuts are actually dead ends and rotaries disguised as easy exits. Carver's stories, though seemingly simple, illustrate the intricacies of human relationships, the complicated grids that bind and sever us. Amazingly, Carver affects this end without relying on heavy imagery or backstory; instead, his themes prickle through carefully executed dialogue, simple but meticulous telling, and the occasional inner monologue. Certainly, Carver is one of the few authors who cannot only get away with, but who excels in his craft by "telling" rather than "showing."

Because Carver wastes little time on introductory exposition, his stories seem to start with the tension that accompanies the near-closing of rising action; the climax, the mess that defines humanity, is never far from the start of a Carver story. The stories in this collection include characters who experience every type of normal human difficulty; what makes the stories unique is Carver's microscopic view of the characters' aggravatingly simple and thus nearly surreal motivations. Carver serves untainted truth where many authors choose to focus on surface sentimentality, on superficial cause and effect. It is for this reason-the fact that honest stories are so difficult to find-that the harsh and weird realities in Carver's stories seem at times surreal. His stories make readers itch with indignation and squirm with newly impressed awareness as he knocks humanity from its pedestal and does not apologize; Carver's stories imply that humans are more simple than they are complex but also that human simplicity is complex. I challenge another writer to pull off this theme as exceptionally as Carver does. Furthermore, I challenge readers to accept their flaws, to admit to the sinful short cuts that they have attempted.