Raymond Carver- I love you!

 

Is it a rare occasion when I fall in love with a story. However, at this time I offer up a round of applause to Raymond Carver.  

I have recently fallen in love with Carver's short story "Cathedral." 

"Cathedral" is a short story by the late Raymond Carver written in 1983. This short story is narrated through an unnamed man and his reaction to his wife who is awaiting an old friend of hers to arrive. We learn that the wife's friend is a blind man named Robert and he has been in her life since she worked for him one summer when she was young. The narrator depicts his wife's past as to her first marriage, how she met Robert, and the current events of the story. At the time of the story's events, Robert's wife Beulah had recently passed away and the narrator's wife has invited Robert to stay. 

Until Robert's arrival, the narrator has disdain and an apathetic attitude toward's Robert. However, following an evening of bonding all together over dinner and smoking pot, the narrator and Robert bond over a pot trip and the idea of "what is a cathedral?" The story ends with the pair drawing a cathedral while stoned and bonding. 

The story itself is wholesome and I grew attached to the characters without knowing much about them. Carver excels at distinguishing between the story's past and current events. He is descriptive with the character's surroundings and sequences of events which only makes the lack of names for the character's all the better. 

Carver excels at provoking the reader's emotions and has a particular tone in his short story that is unlike anything I have read in awhie.

to the late Raymond Carver-- I love you!