Eating Disorders: Raymond Carver Short Stories

Friday 9 November 2012

Raymond Carver Short Stories

One of my favorite short story writers in college was Raymond Carver. We studied him in a creative writing class, and at the end of the semester, when everyone was selling back the books they were tired of studying, I tucked Where I’m Calling From in a box as I moved home, and I recently had the pleasure of pulling it out again and starting to re-read. So, I decided I’d share one of my favorite stories with you all on here. The fall began with Ray's trip to Missoula, Mont., in '72 to fish with friend and literary helpmate Bill Kittredge. That summer Ray fell in love with Diane Cecily, an editor at the University of Montana, whom he met at Kittredge's birthday party. "That's when the serious drinking began. It broke my heart and hurt the children. It changed everything. "By fall of '74," says Carver, "he was more dead than alive. I had to drop out of the Ph.D. program so I could get him cleaned up and drive him to his classes." Over the next several years, she suffered physical abuse. Friends urged her to leave him. "But I couldn't. I really wanted to hang in there for the long haul. I thought I could outlast the drinking. I'd do anything it took. I loved Ray, first, last and always."