Raymond Carver
American story writer and poet (1938–1988)
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?", in 1976. His breakout collection, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" (1981), received immediate acclaim and established Carver as an important figure in the literary world. It was followed by "Cathedral" (1983), which Carver considered his watershed and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. The definitive collection of his stories, "", was published shortly before his death in 1988. In their 1989 nomination of Carver for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the jury concluded, "The revival in recent years of the short story is attributable in great measure to Carver's mastery of the form."
Early life.
Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mill town on the Columbia River, and grew up in Yakima, Washington, the son of Ella Beatrice Carter (née Casey) and Clevie Raymond Carver. His father, a sawmill worker from Arkansas, was a fisherman and a heavy drinker. Carver's mother worked on and off as a waitress and a retail clerk. His brother, James Franklin Carver, was born in 1943.
Carver was educated at local schools in Yakima. In his spare time, he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as "Sports Afield" and "Outdoor Life", and hunted and fished with friends and family.
After graduating from Yakima High School in 1956, Carver worked with his father at a sawmill in California. In June 1957, at age 19, he married 16-year-old Maryann Burk, who had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls. Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December 1957. Their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born a year later. Carver worked as a delivery man, janitor, library assistant, and sawmill laborer, while Maryann worked as an administrative assistant, high school English teacher, salesperson, and waitress.
Writing career.
Carver moved to Paradise, California, with his family in 1958 to be close to his mother-in-law. He became interested in writing while attending Chico State College and enrolled in a creative writing course taught by the novelist John Gardner, then a recent doctoral graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, who became a mentor and had a major influence on Carver's life and career. In 1961, Carver's first published story, "The Furious Seasons", appeared. More florid than his later work, the story strongly bore the influence of William Faulkner. "Furious Seasons" was later used as a title for a collection of stories published by Capra Press, and is part of the collection, "No Heroics, Please" and "Call If You Need Me".
Carver continued his studies under the short story writer Richard Cortez Day (alumnus of the Iowa program) beginning in autumn 1960 at Humboldt State College in Arcata. He chose not to take the foreign language courses required by the English program and received a B.A. in general studies in 1963. During this period he was first published and served as editor for "Toyon," the college's literary magazine, in which he published several of his own pieces under his own name as well as the pseudonym John Vale.
With his B-minus average, exacerbated by his penchant to forsake coursework for literary endeavors, ballasted by a sterling recommendation from Day, Carver was accepted into the Iowa Writers' Workshop on a $1,000 fellowship for the 1963–1964 academic year. Homesick for California and unable to fully adjust to the program's upper middle class milieu, he only completed 12 credits out of the 30 required for a M.A. degree or 60 for the M.F.A. degree. Although program director Paul Engle awarded him a fellowship for a second year of study after Maryann Carver personally interceded and compared her husband's plight to Tennessee Williams' deleterious experience in the program three decades earlier, Carver decided to leave the University of Iowa at the end of the semester. According to biographer Carol Sklenicka, Carver falsely claimed to have received an M.F.A. from Iowa in 1966 on later curricula vitae. Maryann, who postponed completing her education to support her husband's educational and literary endeavors, eventually graduated from San Jose State College in 1970 and taught English at Los Altos High School until 1977. After completing graduate work at Stanford, she briefly enrolled in the University of California, Santa Barbara's English doctoral program when Carver taught at the institution as a visiting lecturer in 1974.
In the mid-1960s, Carver and his family resided in Sacramento, where he briefly worked at a bookstore before taking a position as a night custodian at Mercy Hospital. He did all of the janitorial work in the first hour and then wrote through the rest of his shift. He audited classes at what was then Sacramento State College, including workshops with poet Dennis Schmitz. Carver and Schmitz soon became friends, and Carver wrote and published his first book of poems, "Near Klamath", under Schmitz's guidance.
1967 was a landmark year for Carver with the appearance of "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" in Martha Foley's annual "Best American Short Stories" anthology and the impending publication of "Near Klamath" by the English Club of Sacramento State College. He briefly enrolled in the library science graduate program at the University of Iowa that summer but returned to California following the death of his father. Shortly thereafter, the Carvers relocated to Palo Alto, California, so he could take his first white-collar job, at Science Research Associates, a subsidiary of IBM in nearby Menlo Park, California, where he worked intermittently as a textbook editor and public relations director through 1970.
Following a 1968 sojourn to Israel, the Carvers relocated to San Jose, California; as Maryann finished her undergraduate degree, he continued his graduate studies in library science at San Jose State through the end of 1969 before failing once again to take a degree. During this period, he established vital literary connections with Gordon Lish, who worked across the street from Carver as director of linguistic research at Behavioral Research Laboratories, and the poet/publisher George Hitchcock.
After the publication of "Neighbors" in the June 1971 issue of "Esquire" at the instigation of Lish (by now ensconced as the magazine's fiction editor), Carver began to teach at the University of California, Santa Cruz at the behest of provost James B. Hall, an Iowa alumnus and early mentor to Ken Kesey at the University of Oregon, commuting from his new home in Sunnyvale, California.
Having endured a succession of failed applications to the Stegner Fellowship, Carver was admitted to the prestigious non-degree Stanford University graduate creative writing program for the 1972–1973 term, where he cultivated friendships with Kesey-era luminaries Ed McClanahan and Gurney Norman in addition to contemporaneous fellows Chuck Kinder, Max Crawford, and William Kittredge. The $4,000 stipend enabled the Carvers to buy a house in Cupertino, California. He also took on another teaching job at the University of California, Berkeley that year and briefly rented a pied-à-terre in the city; this development was precipitated by his initiation of an extramarital affair with Diane Cecily, a University of Montana administrator and mutual friend of Kittredge who would subsequently marry Kinder.
During his years of working at miscellaneous jobs, rearing children, and trying to write, Carver started abusing alcohol. By his own admission, he gave up writing and took to full-time drinking. In the fall semester of 1973, Carver was a visiting lecturer in the Iowa Writers' Workshop with John Cheever, but Carver stated that they did less teaching than drinking and almost no writing. With the assistance of Kinder and Kittredge, he attempted to simultaneously commute to Berkeley and maintain his lectureship at Santa Cruz; after missing all but a handful of classes due to the inherent logistical hurdles of this arrangement and various alcohol-related illnesses, Hall gently enjoined Carver to resign his position. The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Carver went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his alcoholism, but continued drinking for another three years.
His first short story collection, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?", was published in 1976. The collection itself was shortlisted for the National Book Award, though it sold fewer than 5,000 copies that year.
Personal life and death.
Decline of first marriage.
The following excerpt from Scott Driscoll's review of Maryann Burk Carver's 2006 memoir describes the decline of her and Raymond's marriage.
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />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", writes Carver, "he was more dead than alive. I had to drop out of the PhD program so I could get him cleaned up and drive him to his classes". Over the next several years, Maryann's husband physically abused her. Friends urged her to leave Raymond.
"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."
Carver describes, without a trace of rancor, what finally put her over the edge. In the fall of '78, with a new teaching position at the University of Texas at El Paso, Ray started seeing Tess Gallagher, a writer from Port Angeles, who would become his muse and wife near the end of his life. "It was like a contretemps. He tried to call me to talk about where we were. I missed the calls. He knew he was about to invite Tess to Thanksgiving." So he wrote a letter instead.
"I thought, I've gone through all those years fighting to keep it all balanced. Here it was, coming at me again, the same thing. I had to get on with my own life. But I never fell out of love with him."
After being hospitalized three times between June 1976 and February or March 1977, Carver began his "second life" and stopped drinking on June 2, 1977, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. While he continued to regularly smoke cannabis and later experimented with cocaine at the behest of Jay McInerney during a 1980 visit to New York City, Carver believed he would have died of alcoholism at the age of 40 had he not overcome his drinking.
Second marriage.
In November 1977, Carver met the poet Tess Gallagher at a writers' conference in Dallas, Texas. Gallagher later remembered feeling "as if my life until then had simply been a rehearsal for meeting him." Beginning in January 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived together in El Paso, Texas, in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles, Washington, and in Tucson, Arizona.
In 1980, the two moved to Syracuse, New York, where Gallagher had been appointed the coordinator of the creative writing program at Syracuse University; Carver taught as a professor in the English department. He and Gallagher jointly purchased a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue. In ensuing years, the house became so popular that the couple had to hang a sign outside that read "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone.
In 1982, he and his first wife, Maryann, were divorced.
On June 17, 1988, six weeks prior to his death, Carver and Gallagher married in Reno, Nevada.
Death.
On August 2, 1988, Carver died in Port Angeles from lung cancer at the age of 50. In the same year, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is buried at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles, Washington. The inscription on his tombstone reads:
<poem>
LATE FRAGMENT
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
</poem>
His poem "Gravy" is also inscribed.
As Carver's will directed, Tess Gallagher assumed the management of his literary estate.
Awards and memorials.
Carver was nominated for the National Book Award for his first major-press collection, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please" in 1977 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his third major-press collection, "Cathedral" (1983), the volume generally perceived as his best. Included in the latter collection are the award-winning stories "A Small, Good Thing", and "Where I'm Calling From". John Updike selected the latter for inclusion in "The Best American Short Stories of the Century." For his part, Carver perceived "Cathedral" as a watershed in his career for its shift toward a more optimistic and confidently poetic style amid the diminution of Lish's literary influence.
Carver won five O. Henry Awards with "Are These Actual Miles" (originally titled "What Is It?") (1972), "Put Yourself in My Shoes" (1974), "Are You A Doctor?" (1975), "A Small, Good Thing" (1983), and "Errand" (1988).
In Carver's birth town of Clatskanie, Oregon, a memorial park and statue are at the corner of Lillich and Nehalem streets, across from the library. A block away is the building where Carver was born.
Legacy and posthumous publications.
In December 2006, Gallagher published an essay in "The Sun magazine", titled "Instead of Dying", about alcoholism and Carver's having maintained his sobriety. The essay is an adaptation of a talk she initially delivered at the Welsh Academy's Academi Intoxication Conference in 2006. The first lines read: "Instead of dying from alcohol, Raymond Carver chose to live. I would meet him five months after this choice, so I never knew the Ray who drank, except by report and through the characters and actions of his stories and poems."
Chuck Kinder's "Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale" (2001) is a roman à clef about his friendship with Carver in the 1970s. Carver's high school sweetheart and first wife, Maryann Burk Carver, wrote a memoir of her years with Carver, "What it Used to be Like: A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver" (2006).
In 2009, "The New York Times Book Review" and "San Francisco Chronicle" named Carol Sklenicka's unauthorized biography, "Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life" (2009), published by Scribner, one of the Best Ten Books of that year; and the "San Francisco Chronicle" deemed it: "exhaustively researched and definitive biography". Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, refused to engage with Sklenicka.
His final (incomplete) collection of seven stories, titled "Elephant and Other Stories" in Britain (included in "") was composed in the five years before his death. The nature of these stories, especially "Errand", have led to some speculation that Carver was preparing to write a novel. Only one piece of this work has survived – the fragment "The Augustine Notebooks", first printed in "No Heroics, Please".
Tess Gallagher fought with Knopf for permission to republish the stories in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as they were originally written by Carver, as opposed to the heavily edited and altered versions that appeared in 1981 under the editorship of Gordon Lish. On October 1, 2009, the book, entitled "Beginners", was released in hardback in Great Britain, followed by its publication in the Library of America edition which collected all of Carver's short fiction in a single volume.
The Raymond Carver Reading Series at Syracuse University is a reading series program which annually brings 12 to 14 prominent writers to the campus. It is presented by the "Creative Writing Program" in SU's College of Arts and Sciences.
Literary characteristics.
Carver's career emphasized short stories and poetry. He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" (in the foreword of "", a collection published in 1988 and a recipient of an honorable mention in the 2006 "New York Times" article citing the best works of fiction of the previous 25 years). Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or poem] can be written and read in one sitting." This was not simply a preference but, particularly at the beginning of his career, a practical consideration as he juggled writing with work. His subject matter was often focused on blue-collar experience, and was clearly reflective of his own life.
Characteristics of minimalism are generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work, although, as reviewer David Wiegand notes:
Carver never thought of himself as a minimalist or in any category, for that matter.
"He rejected categories generally," Sklenicka says. "I don't think he had an abstract mind at all. He just wasn't built that way, which is why he's so good at picking the right details that will stand for many things."
Carver's editor at "Esquire", Gordon Lish, was instrumental in shaping his prose in this direction – where his earlier tutor John Gardner had advised Carver to use fifteen words instead of twenty-five, Lish instructed Carver to use five in place of fifteen. Objecting to the "surgical amputation and transplantation" of Lish's heavy editing, Carver eventually broke with him. During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey, then poetry editor of "Esquire".
Carver's style has also been described as dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Richard Ford and Tobias Wolff with both of whom Carver was closely acquainted, as well as others such as Ann Beattie, Frederick Barthelme, and Jayne Anne Phillips. With the exception of Beattie, who wrote about upper-middle-class people, these were writers who focused on sadness and loss in the everyday lives of ordinary people—often lower-middle class or isolated and marginalized people.
In his essay "On Influence", Carver states that, while he was an admirer of Ernest Hemingway's fiction, he never saw him as an influence, citing instead the work of Lawrence Durrell.
References.
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
1981 short story collection by Raymond Carver
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a 1981 collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, as well as the title of one of the stories in the collection. Considered by many one of American literature's most ambitious short-story collections, it was this collection that turned Raymond Carver into a household name in the publishing industry.
Content.
"Why Don't You Dance?".
"Why Don't You Dance?" tells the story of a middle-aged man overseeing a yard sale, where many of his possessions are being sold. A young couple stops by to select furniture for their new apartment. They briefly haggle with him over prices, buying a TV and a bed. The man tells the young woman to put a record on, and, when the music begins, asks the couple to dance. The young man is reluctant, but they dance. When the middle-aged man dances with the girl she tells him "You must be desperate or something." Several weeks later, the woman is telling her friends about the man at his yard sale. She indicates the record player and records he gave them, saying: "Will you look at this shit?" She repeatedly and unsuccessfully tries to describe the man's situation to others, hoping to make sense of the man's situation, before eventually giving up.
"Viewfinder".
A hook-handed man takes a photograph of the narrator's house from the street, then sells it to him. The narrator asks the photographer in for coffee. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit".
A man reflects "about three years back" on his struggle to come to grips with a couple of troublesome relationships. He was surprised to see his elderly single mother kissing a man on the sofa upstairs. He says his kids were crazy and so was his wife, Myrna, who eventually fell for another man named Ross whom she met at Alcoholics Anonymous. He remembers how his father died and suggests to Myrna that they "hug awhile" and have a "real nice supper," and she responds somewhat lukewarmly. The manuscript version titled "Where Is Everyone?" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"Gazebo".
Set in a roomy upstairs suite, motel managers Holly & Duane discuss the disintegration of their marriage. Duane has been having an affair with a cleaning lady, Juanita. Duane tries to convince Holly that their love can be rekindled and reconciled but Holly does not agree. Duane is left hopelessly bemoaning the future he had envisioned with Holly. Though he is self aware that it might not have really been the future he wanted himself. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"I Could See the Smallest Things".
Nancy wakes up in the middle of the night because of a noise outside. She realizes it's the open gate, and hesitantly she goes to the kitchen to smoke for a while before going out to investigate, leaving her alcoholic husband Cliff "passed out" and snoring loudly in bed. At the fence, Nancy meets her neighbor Sam, a widower, who is spreading insecticide to kill slugs which are ruining his garden. Nancy & Sam talk and it becomes clear Sam and Cliff, once good friends, have had a falling-out. Lonely and wishing to patch up their relationship, Sam asks Nancy to tell Cliff he said hello. Nancy says she will and goes back to bed, realizing she forgot to latch the gate shut. The manuscript version titled "Want to See Something?" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"Sacks".
Les, a textbook salesman, reflects back a year ago on an incident where he met up with his father in a Sacramento airport. It's been two years since his father's divorce from his mother. While the wife was away, the father had been having an extramarital affair with a Stanley Products saleswoman. The father asks Les if everything is okay, and Les lies, saying everything is fine. A fissure seems to grow between the father and son during the uncomfortable, transient, confusing meeting. Fairly sure that his father will play a negligent to nonexistent role in his future, Les boards his flight. The manuscript version titled "The Fling" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"The Bath".
On his birthday, young Scotty is walking to school when he is hit by a car and knocked unconscious. "The Bath" is a predecessor of "A Small, Good Thing," one of Carver's most famous stories, which was published in "Cathedral". It is much shorter than "A Small, Good Thing" and ends on an ambiguous note as Scotty's mother goes home from the hospital to take a bath, which is where this version of the story gets its name.
"Tell the Women We're Going".
Two close childhood friends, identified by the author as Bill Jamison & Jerry Roberts, are out of school and have married. After Jerry married, Bill sensed a change in his friend, something that he'd never once shown. One afternoon, the two men leave both their wives and Jerry's kids to go out for a drive, for old-time's sake. They play pool and drink beer at the Rec Center while reminiscing about the olden days. On their way out, they see two women biking down the road. Jerry proposes turning back and chatting them up, juvenile and excited. They pull up to the women and Bill introduces himself and Jerry, but the girls, named Barbara and Sharon, seem completely uninterested. They drive ahead and wait for the women to pass. The women, when they arrive, drop their bikes and cut down a path away from the men, which doesn't really bother Bill but angers Jerry, who devises a plan to cut them off. The story ends in a surprise twist, with Jerry bashing Sharon and Barbara over their heads with a rock, ostensibly killing them both and proving Jerry's deep unhappiness with life. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"After the Denim".
James and Edith Packer, an elderly couple, go out for the night to play bingo at the local community center. While there, James is perturbed by a young hippy-like couple dressed in denim who go on to ruin his fun and evening: they take the Packers' parking spot; James sees the young man cheating and confronts him but the man denies the allegation. Later, when the young girl gets bingo, everybody but James claps. James is certain the couple will use the victory money on drugs. That night as the Packers are getting ready for bed, Edith reveals to James that she's been "bleeding" and "spotting," and she'll require medical attention. Restless and upset over his wife's sickness, James wonders why it isn't the young couple who has all the problems. The manuscript version titled "If It Please You" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"So Much Water So Close to Home".
As she is having breakfast, Claire, is shocked to learn that her husband, Stuart, and his three buddies found the body of a girl washed up on the rivershore upon arriving in the afternoon for their yearly camping trip, as reported by the morning newspaper that day. Instead of reporting the body to the police immediately, the four rather enjoy their vacation, spending some time fishing, getting to eating, and drinking whisky as they sit by the fire, all the while the body of the dead girl lays there. As the quartet packs up the next morning, Stuart uses a payphone to alert the police about the corpse found by the riverbed. Claire feels deeply distanced from her husband, whom she thought she knew, and cannot stop wondering about the dead girl, to whom she feels oddly connected. She starts believing that Stuart and his friends could be behind the girl's murder. Claire wonders why they didn't go fishing locally and why they didn't report the body quickly, as she'd have. Later, after the body is identified and Stuart is at work, Claire reads the funeral plans in the newspaper and decides to attend. On her way to the funeral, a man in a pickup truck pulls her over and asks to talk to her. Though he claims he just wants to make sure she's safe, Claire believes that he is looking at her sexually through the glass. Claustrophobic and frightened, Claire clicks her car locks shut and says she's fine. After the funeral Claire overhears a woman saying they caught the killer, but Claire is not so certain they have the right man. The story ends with Stuart making a sexual advance on Claire in the kitchen. As he reaches for her breasts, she hears water running in the sink and is reminded of the girl floating in the river. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off".
The character of Jack Fraser, in classical Carver style, tells the story of a local outsider named Dummy who worked in the same sawmill as Jack's father Del. Del gets Dummy to fill a pond on his land with bass, but Dummy eventually builds an electric fence around it so people stop coming by. Dummy drifts further into isolation and his wife starts going around with another man, much to his discontent. The story ends with Dummy murdering his wife and committing suicide by drowning in his beloved pond. Del impresses upon Jack what a wrong woman can turn a man into. Later, Jack understands Dummy's plight more clearly. The manuscript version titled "Dummy" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"A Serious Talk".
Burt finds himself incapable of leaving his wife Vera alone. On Boxing Day, Burt comes back to his wife's house to try and explain away his poor behavior from the night before. On Christmas Day, Burt put too many logs in the fire which could've burned the place down. On his way out to make room for Vera's boyfriend Charlie, Burt finds it appropriate to steal six pies from the kitchen counter left unattended. On the 26th, Vera does not want to talk to Burt; she doesn't have the time, it's obvious she has plans already. Burt tries again and again to apologize but Vera does not think it's sincere. Burt notices cigarette butts that are not Vera's regular brand collected in the ashtray, "their ashtray," and feels out of place. While Vera is the bathroom the phone rings and she shouts at Burt to answer it. It's a call for Charlie and Burt responds curtly, saying he's "not here" before leaving the phone off the hook. Vera comes back into the kitchen, and it's clear she cannot tolerate Burt sticking around. The phone rings again and Vera says she'll answer it from the bedroom. Instead of hanging up when Vera commands, Burt takes a knife from the cabinet and cuts the cord in two. Vera realizes what's happened and yells for Burt to leave, saying she'll get a restraining order. Burt leaves calmly and, as he drives away in his car holding their ashtray, he is deludedly convinced that in a few weeks they'll have a "serious talk" and get back together. The manuscript version titled "Pie" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"The Calm".
A man sitting in a barber's chair getting a haircut listens as three men waiting their turn argue about a hunting story one of the men is telling. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2004).
"Popular Mechanics".
The protagonist is seen first packing a suitcase, all the while a woman swears at him and yells loudly, glad that he's finally leaving her. Their baby won't stop crying. The protagonist decides he wants to bring the baby with him but the woman won't let him even get near their baby. The two get into a tussle and a tug-of-war over the baby. The story ends with the man and the woman pulling tremendously on the baby, with somewhat ambiguously grim and dark possibilities. Titled "Little Things" in "" (1988); the manuscript version titled "Mine" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"Everything Stuck to Him".
A father tells his young adult daughter what life was like for their family when she was a young child, all while on vacation in Milan. The manuscript version titled "Distance" appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"One More Thing".
At the kitchen table, L.D. argues with his daughter Rae, age 15, about her beliefs. Maxine, the wife, comes home and notices L.D. is drunk. Maxine sides with Rae, saying she can like what she likes. In a moment of fury, L.D. throws a pickle jar through the window, shattering the glass. Maxine gives L.D. an ultimatum: he must pack his things and go or she'll call the police. L.D. starts packing, stuffing not only his belongings into his suitcase but also vindictively taking womanly toiletries he could make no use of. Taking one last look around, about to leave for good, L.D. says he has one more thing to tell his wife and daughter but, suddenly inarticulate, he is unable to put what he feels into words. The manuscript version of the same title appears in "Beginners" (2009).
"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".
Mel McGinnis is a 45-year-old cardiologist married to Teresa, also known as Terri. They live together in Albuquerque. The narrator, Nick, describes Mel as tall and rangy with curly soft hair and Teresa (who is Mel's second wife) as bone-thin with a pretty face, dark eyes, and brown hair. Nick is 38 years old, and married to Laura, 35, who works as a legal secretary. The four sit around a table at Mel and Terri's, drinking gin in the afternoon.
They soon start to talk about love. Terri has had an abusive relationship; the abuse, she says, derives from love. Ed, Terri's former abusive boyfriend, "loved her so much he tried to kill her." Ed would beat Terri; he dragged her around the living room by her ankles knocking her into things along the way. Terri believes that Ed loved her and his abuse was his way of showing it. No matter what Terri says, Mel refuses to believe that was "love". Ed also stalked Mel and Terri and called Mel at work with threatening messages. At one point, Mel was so scared he bought a gun and made out a will. Mel even wrote to his brother in California, saying that "if something happened to him" to look for Ed.
Terri's abusive boyfriend eventually committed suicide after two attempts (as Terri sees it, another act of love). Ed's first attempt at suicide was when Terri had left him. Ed had drunk rat poison, but was rushed to the hospital where he was saved. In Ed's second, successful attempt he shot himself in the mouth. Terri and Mel argued about whether she could be in the hospital bedroom with him when he died. Terri won and was with Ed as he died; as Terri puts it, "He never came up out of it."
Soon afterward, Mel begins a story about an elderly couple struck by a drunk driver, a teenager who was pronounced dead at the scene. Mel was called into the hospital and saw how badly the elderly couple had been injured. He says that they had "multiple fractures, internal injuries, hemorrhaging, contusions, and lacerations." The couple were in casts and bandages from head to toe. Mel's point in telling the story is the husband's consternation when the couple was moved into the intensive care unit. Mel would visit the couple daily, and when he put his ear to the husband's mouth-hole, the latter told Mel he was upset because he could not see his wife through his eye-holes.
Mel strays from the topic with more talk about Ed, his personal thoughts about love, hatred toward his ex-wife, and life as a knight. Mel feels even though one loves a person, if something were to happen to them, the survivor would grieve but love again.
After finishing the second bottle of gin, the couples discuss going to dinner, but no one makes any moves to proceed with their plans.
Earlier version.
Carver's original draft of the story "Beginners" was heavily edited by Gordon Lish, who cut out nearly half of Carver's story, adding in details of his own. Carver's original draft, released by his widow Tess Gallagher and published in a December 2007 issue of "the New Yorker", reveals the extensive edits. For instance, the character Mel was originally named Herb, and the abusive boyfriend, renamed Ed by Lish, was originally named Carl. Additionally, Herb's story about the old couple was cut nearly in half, with Lish removing the story of the old couple's home life, love, and reunion in the hospital. In Carver's original version, the two had separate rooms, which caused them to pine for each other and eventually led to a scene when they met again. Lish removed all of this, rewrote the couple into the same room, but in body casts that prevented them from seeing each other, and then explained the old man's distress thus:
 "I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn't everything. I'd get up to his mouth-hole, you know, and he'd say no, it wasn't the accident exactly but it was because he couldn't see her through the eye-holes. He said that that was making him feel so bad. Can you imagine? I'm telling you, the man's heart was breaking because he couldn't turn his goddamn head and 'see' his goddamn wife."
 Mel looked around the table and shook his head at what he was going to say.
 "I mean, it was killing the old fart just because he couldn't 'look' at the fucking woman."
Lish also cut out eight paragraphs at the end, in which Terri communicates her worry over Herb's depression to Laura and Nick, and another aspect of love is shown as Laura comforts Terri, tying together all the types of love discussed in the story.
Editing.
There was some contention between Raymond Carver and his editor Gordon Lish over several stories in the collection; the author complained about the "surgical amputation and transplant that might make them someway fit into the carton so the lid will close." Eventually, the book was published with Lish's extensive alterations, and received critical acclaim.
Shortly before his death, Carver arranged the publication of his own selection of 37 of his stories, "". He included some stories as edited by Lish, some restored from his original manuscripts, and some unpublished stories.
Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, fought with Knopf for permission to republish the 17 stories in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as they were originally written by Carver. These original versions eventually appeared in "Beginners", published by Jonathan Cape in 2009, and in the Library of America volume "Collected Stories".

Something About What Happens When We Talk
1993 single by Lucinda Williams
"Something About What Happens When We Talk" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. It was released in 1993 as the fourth single from her fourth album, "Sweet Old World" (1992).
The song was featured in the 1996 drama film "Unhook the Stars", and the 2014 Cheryl Strayed biographical adventure film "Wild". It was also featured in the 2005 HBO miniseries "Empire Falls".
Critical reception.
Country music website Holler listed "Something About What Happens When We Talk" as No. 7 of the best Lucinda Williams songs; “This comfortingly country ballad is Lucinda’s best attempt to describe the tantalizing effects of exchanging words with a particular person. She is unapologetic in her sexually charged search for meaningful conversation. Lush vocals convey her regrets over spare arrangements, kicking herself for never having crossed the line from making conversation to making love.” Music website Return of Rock ranked it at No. 9 on their list of Williams' 12 songs.
NPR also named it one of Williams' best songs, writing " The originality of Williams's mind shines on this vulnerable ballad about the aphrodisiacal charge of meaningful conversation." In their review of "Sweet Old World", "Rolling Stone" wrote "Morlix’s delicate lead and slide fills decorate the tune sparingly", while the song is "a paean to a platonic relationship — that is, until the end, when she sings, 'Well, I can’t stay around ’cause I’m going back South/But all I regret now is I never kissed your mouth'."
References.
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Talk About Love
Talk About Love may refer to:
Topics referred to by the same term
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When We Talk About Love
When We Talk About Love is the fourth album by thenAustralian indie rock band Oh Mercy. It was released in June 2015 and peaked at number 28 on the ARIA Charts.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 2015, the album won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album.
References.
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Love Talk
Love Talk (Korean: ) is the second film by South Korean director Lee Yoon-ki. It tells the story of a group of expatriated South Koreans trying to adapt to living in the Los Angeles area. The film was shot entirely on location in California with Korean and American actors.
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Love Talks
"Love Talks" is a song written by Tom Shapiro, Michael Garvin and Bucky Jones, and recorded by American country music artist Ronnie McDowell. It was released in July 1985 as the second single from the album "In a New York Minute". The song reached #9 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
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Talk About (song)
"Talk About" is a song by English DJ Rain Radio and Irish DJ Craig Gorman.
Released on 14 May 2021, it is a dance track based on an interpolation of "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" by Canadian singer Nelly Furtado. It became a hit in the UK, debuting at No. 44 (for the week ending 15 July 2021) after amassing a sales total of 9,289 units, and was a new entry at No. 42 in Ireland. The song eventually reached the top 10 in both countries, at No. 9.
References.
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I Don't Wanna Talk About Love
"I Don't Wanna Talk About Love" (titled without the "I" on the album) is a song by Danielle Brisebois, the third single off her 1994 album "Arrive All Over You".
Single track listing.
Gregg Alexander features on track 2 and 3

That's What I'm Talking About (disambiguation)
That's What I'm Talking About is a 2004 album by Australian singer Shannon Noll.
"That's what I'm talking about" may also refer to:
Topics referred to by the same term
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Talk About Love (Christine Anu song)
"Talk About Love" is a song recorded by Christine Anu. It was released in October 2003 as the first and only single from her third studio album, "45 Degrees" (2003). The song peaked at number 85 on the ARIA Charts.
Content.
Lyrically, the song sees Anu confront someone who believes they know about love, without evidence:
"You talk about love / But I can't see any love coming out of your mind

You talk about truth / But you don't seem to know what the truth is all about

You talk about me / Tell me what you've done to make that come about

Talk to me about something real, baby / Can you hear me now?"
Track listing.
CD single/Digital download (021522)
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Let's Talk About Love (disambiguation)
Let's Talk About Love is a 1997 album by Celine Dion.
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Let's Talk About Love may also refer to:
See also.
Topics referred to by the same term
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Talk About Love (Zara Larsson song)
"Talk About Love" is a song by Swedish singer Zara Larsson, featuring American rapper Young Thug. It was released through TEN Music Group and Epic Records on 8 January 2021 as the fourth and final single from Larsson's third studio album, "Poster Girl". It was co-written by Thug and its producer Mike Sabath, as well as Amy Allen and Dewain Whitmore Jr. It has been described as a R&B-styled song.
Background.
Larsson explained about the song, "'Talk About Love' is about that phase before two people work out what they are to one another. That specific window is so beautiful and fragile, as soon as you start asking 'are we doing this?' or 'how do *you* feel?', for some people that ruins the magic. 'Talk About Love' is savoring that moment before you have to decide."
Music video.
The music video directed by Larsson herself along with Ryder Ripps was filmed in London and features Larsson's real life boyfriend Lamin Holmén. It was premiered on 8 January 2021 and includes an "emotive dance sequence" while the couple hangs out at home.
References.
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Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" is a song published in 1930. It was written by Sam H. Stept with lyrics by Sidney Clare. The original publication also credited singer Bee Palmer as co-composer.
Background.
The lyrics are an admonishment between parting lovers, where the singer asks the other to either speak nicely of her, or not at all.
1931 recordings.
Early hit versions in 1931 were by Gene Austin and Bert Lown.
Other notable recordings.
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The Talk of the Town (novel)
1998 novel by Ardal O'Hanlon
The Talk of the Town is the first novel written by Ardal O'Hanlon, published by Sceptre in 1998. It was renamed Knick Knack Paddy Whack for publication in the United States.
Premise.
The novel is set in 1980s Ireland and is about life in a small Irish town, where everyone knows everyone else's business. Its tone is humorous but dark. The main character is Patrick Scully, a hapless youth with few prospects.
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Talk About Our Love
2004 single by Brandy
"Talk About Our Love" is a song recorded by American singer Brandy for her fourth studio album "Afrodisiac" (2004). It was written by Kanye West, who also appears as a featured artist on it, and Harold Lilly, while production was handled by the former. Due to the song's use of a sample of Mandrill's 1978 song "Gilly Hines", band members Claude Cave II, and Carlos, Louis, and Ricardo Wilson are also credited as writers. Lyrically, "Talk About Our Love" is about a relationship lacking support from family and friends.
Recorded late into the production of "Afrodisiac", "Talk About Our Love" was an eleventh-hour addition to the track listing, alongside "Where You Wanna Be". It was eventually selected as the album's lead single in a last-minute decision, replacing the Timbaland-produced song "Black Pepper", which resulted in his dissociation from "Afrodisiac". Released on March 26, 2004 to generally positive reviews from music critics, "Talk About Our Love" became a moderate commercial success. While it peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart, the song peaked only at number 36 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100.
The accompanying music video for "Talk About Our Love" was directed by Dave Meyers and was based on a concept by West. It portrays Norwood and the rapper as a couple who is frequently disturbed by nosy friends and neighbours, who keep on popping in and out of their house to find out about their affairs. At the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, Norwood garnered a nomination in the Best R&B Video category. Additionally, the song received a Best Collaboration nomination at the 2004 MOBO Awards. "Talk About Our Love" was promoted on several television shows and was later included in the encore set of her Human World Tour (2009).
Writing and recording.
"Talk About Our Love" was written by American rapper Kanye West and songwriter Harold Lilly, with production handled by the former. Due to the interpolation of Mandrill's 1978 song "Gilly Hines", band members Claude Cave II, and Carlos, Louis and Ricardo Wilson received co-writing credits on the track. Recorded by Eugene Toale at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, it was mixed by Manny Marroquin and engineered by Jun Isheseki, with further assistance from Blake English and Kenisha Pratt. Israeli musician Miri Ben-Ari played the violin, while Ervin A. Pope was on the keyboards.
An eleventh-hour addition to the final track listing of "Afrodisiac", "Talk About Our Love" was not recorded until late into the production of the album. Although Norwood had considered the project complete by October 2003 after intense recording sessions with producer Timbaland and his team, Atlantic Records executive Geroid Roberson encouraged her to embark on additional studio sessions with West, following the success of his debut studio album "The College Dropout" (2004). "One of the executive producers of my album [Roberson] is one of Kanye's managers, so that's how we hooked up", Norwood explained the following year, adding: "He said he always wanted to work with me [and] having followed his successes, I've always wanted to work with him. When we got together it was like, 'Oh, my God! This is great chemistry. It's magical. Kanye's passionate about the song, and so am I, so it worked out great'!".
Music and lyrics.
"Talk About Our Love" is an R&B and hip hop song containing a sample from Mandrill's 1978 song "Gilly Hines". Borrowing from Kanye West's own sound at the time, including wordplay and sampling, Norwood compared the song to Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name" (2003), another West production. Commenting on the music, Norwood said: "We [Norwood and West] collaborated and we just came up with a great melody".
Lyrically, "Talk About Our Love" revolves around a relationship that lacks support by family and friends. Speaking of the content, Norwood remarked: "For me, [it's about] when you're in a relationship and you just wanna be one with that person and you want everybody to support you, but they don't." She described the song as being about "being in a relationship being so deeply in love that everybody wants to be in your business. Everybody wants to be opinionated about what you do and why you do it and I think everybody in a relationship experiences that kind of stuff, people talking about your business so that is what that song is about."
Release.
Though Norwood was expected to shoot a music video for a Timbaland-produced "hyper, bass-heavy" track entitled "Black Pepper" during the second week of December 2003, plans for the single eventually fell through in favor of additional recording sessions with West, the result of which was "Talk About Our Love". Released as lead single from "Afrodisiac" by Atlantic Records heads, the decision somewhat contrasted with Timbaland's major influence on the album and resulted in his dissociation from the album. Norwood later voiced her discontent towards her record company bosses for subsequently deciding to release it as the album's lead single. "No offense, but ‘Talk About Our Love’ was never really my choice to come out with," she said. "I had created a creative energy and a creative bond with Timbaland. What we were trying to do for the album, it was a completely different sound than 'Talk About Our Love.' It was just a little bit interesting for me, and I just wanted to keep the same consistency. But also, Kanye was hot at the time and I wanted to work with him too, but for me it was really what I was trying to create a creative bond with Timbaland. So that wasn't my choice to come out with that first."
"Talk About Our Love" made its world premiere on March 26, 2004 via AOL Music's "First Listen" program, where it was streamed more than 4.6 million times within its first two-month of release; by March 28, its final version had leaked. The song's CD single was released in the United States on May 25, including a reworked version of "Turn It Up", "Afrodisiac"'s preceding buzz single. Elsewhere, "Like It Was Yesterday" appeared as the B-side on the CD single. On July 13, a maxi CD single was released, featuring previously unreleased mixes of the original version; remixes were produced by Albert Cabrera, Bill Hamel, Eric "E-Smoove" Miller, That Kid Chris, Lawrence Fordyce, Eric "Thick Dick" Miller and D. Brandon under his Alan Smithee pseudonym.
Critical reception.
"Talk About Our Love" garnered a generally positive response from music critics. In his review of "Afrodisiac" for AllMusic, Andy Kellman noted that "Talk About Our Love" was a "career highlight for both producer and vocalist" and that it was "even more exceptional than another recent Kanye West-produced track, Janet Jackson's own "I Want You"." In his review for "Billboard", Michael Paoletta wrote that "now armed with a new single, Brandy sounds more grown up and confident (echoes of Mary J. Blige abound). At times, this Kanye West production sound like a lost Shalamar track. In this way, "Talk About Our Love" also recalls Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name", which West co-produced [...] Breezy and melodic, the song intertwines disco-era orchestration and electro-hued hip hop".
"Music Week" felt the song was "boasting great production and a strong hook" and that "it should chart effortlessly." In her review of "Afrodisiac", Sharon O'Connell of Yahoo! Music called West's productions the "two killer tracks" on the album. "Vibe" found that "Talk About Our Love" would aim at Norwood's core audience, stating that "Brandy comes out of the gate with a bangin' Kanye West-produced single [and] this mid-tempo jam is sure to gain the love of many fans that might have been wary of Brandy's recent projects. Watch out Beyoncé and Ashanti – Brandy's back!" BBC Music rated the song three out of five stars, writing: "The chorus is catchy and memorable, so you'll be humming that, but you might not remember how the verses go [...] It'll probably chart somewhere in the teens. It's a good song but does take a few listening before you get into it."
Commercial performance.
On May 6, 2004, "Talk About Our Love" debuted at number 88 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, being the sixth highest debut of the week. The song peaked at number 36 on June 3, the same week it earned the "Billboard" Hot 100's greatest retail gainer designation, becoming Norwood's lowest-peaking lead single at the time. Furthermore, it became her first single to fail reaching the top 20 since "U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To)" (1999) peaked at number 72. "Talk About Our Love" was more successful on "Billboard"'s component charts: benefiting from strong physical sales, it peaked atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales and number three on the Hot Singles Sales, as well as reaching the top 20 on the Dance Club Songs and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The maxi CD single also peaked at number two on the Hot Dance Singles Sales.
In the United Kingdom, "Talk About Our Love" debuted and peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Norwood's fifth non-consecutive top-ten single. The song was the second highest entry of the week–behind Britney Spears' "Everytime", which debuted at number one–and remained within the top ten for two weeks. Elsewhere, the song enjoyed moderate success. While it still managed to reach the top 40 in Australia, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands, it failed to enter the top 50 in other international markets.
Music video.
The accompanying music video for "Talk About Our Love" was filmed in Los Angeles between April 13–14, 2004 and was produced by Rick Revel for Radical Media Inc. It was Norwood's third video to be directed by Dave Meyers, who had previously worked with her on the videos for "Another Day in Paradise" (2001) and "What About Us?" (2002). Apart from Kanye West, who came up with the concept for the video, Norwood's younger brother Ray J and actress Maia Campbell make cameo appearances in the video. West later revealed he met and attained affection for his later-wife Kim Kardashian, who was Brandy's assistant at the timen while filming.
The concept of the video was influenced by Norwood's personal experiences at that period, picking up the idea of nosy friends and neighbors, who keep on popping in and out of her house to find out about her affairs. Opening with a musical intro, the first scene in the video begins with Norwood confronting West, who's standing behind the kitchen's table, when other people switch constantly in and out the room and watch what's happening. The camera follows West's fleeing steps through the floor, incessantly backspacing on Norwood, who runs after him. The scene shifts into the living-room, where it changes into a sequence with two male dancers, before Norwood leaves the room to take stairs into the bedroom. West follows and sings to her next on the bed, when once again pop strangers in the room and Norwood and Kanye decide to escape out of the house. The video ends with both singers sitting in an oldtimer and driving down the street.
The video premiered on May 2, 2004 at the end of its "Making the Video" episode on MTV and entered general rotation on the network the following day. It debuted on "Total Request Live" on May 10 and on MuchMusic in Canada the week ending May 16. It reached number three on the "TRL" top ten video countdown on May 21, after a week on the countdown; and retired from the show after spending 13 days on the countdown. The "Talk About Our Love" video was the most-played clip on BET, reaching number two on the network's video countdown "106 & Park". "PopMatters" ranked the video among the best music videos of 2004. At the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, Norwood and West were nominated in the category of Best R&B Video for "Talk About Our Love".
Track listings and formats.
Notes
Credits and personnel.
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of "Afrodisiac".
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Talk to Me (NYC)
Talk To Me is a cultural phenomenon first observed in New York City. In 2002, Bill Wetzel and Liz Barry started hanging out in lawn chairs on New York City street corners with a sign that said "Talk To Me". What surprised many was that the couple appeared genuinely interested in the subjects that were addressed and that there was no ulterior motive to their project.
Wetzel came up with the idea for this project in February 2002 out of the desire to have conversations with strangers. The duo spent more than three years in various New York City neighborhoods with their sign. They worked small jobs, and lived in part on an anonymous donation who provided them with one year's worth of their daily stipend, $7 each. They also hosted a Talk To Me Party in Bryant Park where they invited strangers that they met to talk to each other.
In 2005, Barry and Wetzel spent thirteen months biking from New York City to San Francisco and back, pausing en route with their sign and leaving from New York with only $2,000. When traveling around the country, they talked to strangers at malls, parks, gas stations, and bars, and were also invited to talk to strangers at weddings, prisons, and senior centers.
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Lionel Shriver
American author (born 1957)
Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann Shriver; May 18, 1957) is an American author and journalist. Her novel "We Need to Talk About Kevin" won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005.
Early life and education.
Shriver was born Margaret Ann Shriver, in Gastonia, North Carolina, to a religious family. Her father, Donald, was a Presbyterian minister who became an academic and president of the Union Theological Seminary in New York; her mother was a homemaker. At age 15, Shriver changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel because as a tomboy, she felt a conventionally masculine name was more appropriate.
Shriver was educated at Barnard College of Columbia University (BA, MFA). She has lived in Nairobi, Bangkok, Belfast, and London, and currently resides in Portugal. She has taught metalsmithing at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp in New Milford, Connecticut.
Writing.
Fiction.
Shriver had written seventeen novels, of which seven had been published, before she wrote "We Need to Talk About Kevin", which she called her "make or break" novel because of the years of "professional disappointment" and "virtual obscurity" preceding it.
In an interview with "Bomb" magazine, Shriver listed the various subjects of her novels up to the publication of "We Need to Talk About Kevin": "anthropology and first love; rock-and-roll drumming and immigration; the Northern Irish Troubles; demography and epidemiology; inheritance; tennis and spousal competition; terrorism and cults of personality". Rather than writing traditionally sympathetic characters, Shriver prefers to create characters who are "hard to love."
"We Need to Talk About Kevin" was awarded the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel is a study of maternal ambivalence, and the role it might have played in the title character's decision to murder nine people at his high school. It provoked much controversy and achieved success through word of mouth. Shriver said this about the novel's success::
I'm often asked did something happen around the time I wrote "Kevin". Did I have some revelation or transforming event? The truth is that "Kevin" is of a piece with my other work. There's nothing special about "Kevin". The other books are good too. It just tripped over an issue that was just ripe for exploration and by some miracle found its audience.
 The novel was adapted into the 2011 film of the same name, starring Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller.
In 2009, Shriver donated the short story "Long Time, No See" to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Fire" collection. Shriver's next novel, "So Much for That," was published on March 2, 2010. In this novel, Shriver presents a biting criticism of the U.S. health care system. It was named as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. Her next work, "The New Republic," was published in 2012. It had existed since 1998, but had failed to find a publisher at the time. Her 2013 book, "Big Brother: A Novel", was inspired by the morbid obesity of one of her brothers.
"The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047", published in May 2016, is an "acid satire" set in a near future in which the United States is unable to repay its national debt and Mexico has built a wall on its northern border to keep out US citizens trying to escape with their savings. Members of the moneyed Mandible family must contend with disappointment and struggle to survive after losing the inheritance on which they had been counting.
Shriver's most recent novel, "Mania" (novel), described in "The Observer" as "novel about a cancelled lecturer in a parallel dystopia that prizes ignorance", was published by Borough Press in 2024.
Journalism.
Shriver has written for "The Wall Street Journal", the "Financial Times", "The New York Times", "The Economist", "Harper's Magazine", and other publications, plus the Radio Ulster program "Talkback". In July 2005, Shriver began writing a column for "The Guardian", in which she shared her opinions on maternal disposition within Western society, the pettiness of British government authorities, and the importance of libraries (she plans to will whatever assets remain at her death to the Belfast Library Board).
Shriver currently writes for "The Spectator", and occasionally contributes to the "Comment" page of "The Times".
Political views and activism.
Shriver described herself as a "lifelong Democrat" in 2022 but holds some views that could be considered conservative. For example, Shriver has argued against migration into the UK; in 2021 she wrote an article which stated "For westerners to passively accept and even abet incursions by foreigners so massive that the native-born are effectively surrendering their territory without a shot fired is biologically perverse." She is a patron of UK population growth rate concern group Population Matters, and supported Brexit, the UK's exit from the European Union.
She claims to have voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In September 2022, Shriver released an open letter in which she endorsed Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. In the letter, she criticized both Biden and Donald Trump as poor leaders, and praised DeSantis for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, banning critical race theory in schools, opposing transgender women from competing in women's sports, and passing the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act; while noting that she disagrees with him on abortion.
In May 2010, Shriver criticized the American health system in an interview while at the Sydney Writers' Festival in Australia, in which she said she was "exasperated with the way that medical matters were run in my country" and considers that she is taking "my life in my hands. Most of all I take my bank account in my hands because if I take a wrong turn on my bike and get run over by a taxi, I could lose everything I have."
As the 2016 keynote speaker at the Brisbane Writers' Festival, Shriver gave a controversial speech critical of the concept of cultural appropriation which led the festival to "pull its links to Shriver's speech and publicly disavow her point of view." Shriver had previously been criticized for her depiction of Latino and African American characters in her book "The Mandibles", which was described by one critic as racist and by another as politically misguided. In her Writers' Festival speech, Shriver contested these criticisms of her book, stating that writers should be entitled to write from any perspective, race, gender or background that they choose.
In June 2018, she criticized an effort by the publisher Penguin Random House to diversify the authors that it published and better represent the population, saying that it prioritized diversity over quality and that a manuscript "written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven" would be published "whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling". Penguin Random House marketer and author Candice Carty-Williams criticized the statements. As a result of her comments Shriver was dropped from judging a competition for the magazine "Mslexia".
Shriver expressed her opposition to woke and identity politics in a 2021 interview with the "Evening Standard," stating that "I don't like discrimination of any kind" but adding "there is nothing malign, initially at least, in the impulse to pursue a fairer society. The biggest problem with the 'woke’ is their methods – too often involving name calling, silencing, vengefulness, and predation."
In a 2022 "Comment" piece for "The Times", she argued that "Putin could nuke Ukraine and get away with it".
In August 2023 Shriver gave an interview with the "Evening Standard" in which she claimed "You don't have free speech in the UK anymore".
Personal life.
Shriver married jazz drummer Jeff Williams in 2003. They live in Portugal.
On June 7, 2016, Shriver appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme "My Teenage Diary", during which she read extracts from her journals from the late 1960s and early 1970s and discussed her upbringing and adolescence.
Bibliography.
Fiction.
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Beginners (short story collection)
2009 short story collection by Raymond Carver
Beginners is the title given to the manuscript version of Raymond Carver's 1981 short story collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love", published with the permission of Carver's widow Tess Gallagher in 2009.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
2012 short story collection by Nathan Englander
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is a 2012 short story collection by the American writer Nathan Englander. The book was first published on February 7, 2012, through Knopf and collects eight of Englander's short stories, including the title story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank."
The title of the collection takes its influence from Raymond Carver's 1981 short story collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, losing to Adam Johnson's "The Orphan Master's Son". Englander's collection was awarded the 2012 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
Reception.
Critical reception for "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" has been mostly positive and the book received praise from the "Washington Times", "Los Angeles Times", and the "Jewish Book Council". According to Book Marks, primarily from American publications, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on fourteen critics: six "rave", four "positive", one "mixed", and three "pan". "Culture Critic" assessed critical response as an aggregated score of 88%. In the May/June 2012 issue of "Bookmarks", the book was scored four out of five. The magazine's critical summary reads: "This is a collection with few, if any, missteps (though "Peep Show," in which a husband visits a Times Square nudie and guiltily encounters some naked rabbis, feels contrived) and a rare exploration of faith, family, and individual identity".
In "The New York Times," Michiko Kakutani gave the book a mixed-to-positive review, stating: "At his best, Mr. Englander manages to delineate such extreme behavior with a combination of psychological insight, allegorical gravity and sometimes uproarious comedy" but that "In several instances, however, the delicate narrative balance slips from Mr. Englander’s grasp." Kakutani also notes: "It’s the title story and “Everything I Know About My Family” that point to Mr. Englander's evolution as a writer, his ability to fuse humor and moral seriousness into a seamless narrative, to incorporate elliptical — yes, Carver-esque — techniques into his arsenal of talents to explore how faith and family (and the stories characters tell about faith and family) ineluctably shape an individual's identity."
James Lasdun's review for "The Guardian" was more positive, adding: "If there is an abiding theme, it is the way in which notions of right and wrong, guilt and innocence, victim and oppressor, shift over time as memories fade or new perspectives open up on old struggles." Lasdun also offered praise for Englander: "The new book (which comes garlanded with praise from just about every A-list author in America) turns out to be a remarkable collection, not least because of its courageous determination to push forward in the direction hinted at by that last story." He did, however characterize the title story as a "dud, or semi-dud" and noted: "But I suspect Englander might have pulled it off if he hadn't constrained himself so tightly