In the spring of
1990, a friend suggested if I liked J.D. Salinger, I should read Raymond
Carver. It would seem this recommendation and my subsequent falling in love
with Carver’s style would come a bit too late. My “discovery” of him came two
years after his death. I read everything by Carver I could find. I even turned
down plans with friends to stay home and read his stories.
Years later, the
controversy of Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish, became public and many
voiced their thoughts on the process of such heavy editing of a writer’s work.
I felt strangely betrayed. I wondered if I had read more Lish than Carver in
all those stories. Yet, when I read what Tess Gallagher gave to The New Yorker as the first draft of
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” which Carver had titled
“Beginners,” I could honestly say the story was better for the editing. I also
found it intriguing an editor would suggest a longer title.
In 2009, it was
because of this controversy I met my future editor and publisher, Carter Monroe.
A question was raised about it on a writer’s board and I asked him how he felt
about it. After many in-depth discussions on the editing of Carver by Lish and
the nature of editing in general, we began our own process. I’m grateful for
everything I’ve learned and continue to learn about writing.
So this year
when Carter said I needed to read Ray
by Barry Hannah, I listened. I found it interesting Hannah had also worked with
Gordon Lish. While reading Ray, a
part of me wondered if Lish had done heavy editing on the short novel. Perhaps
we’ll never know, but my feeling is the voice in Ray is so strong and surprising- like a whirling dervish spinning
you into unsuspected territory- it must be authentic.
The narrator,
Dr. Ray, takes us through a journey of experiences and relationships in a
succinct whirlwind of a lifetime in 128 pages. Hannah finds the comedy and
tragedy of our humanity and unabashedly reveals it with a delivery of hope. While
it is a perfect and complete work, it has us asking for more time, much like
life itself.
As with Carver,
it seems I am once again “finding” an author two years after his demise.
Although Carver and Hannah are no longer with us, their body of work is eternal.
© 2012 Kristin
Fouquet
"Reading Ray" © 2012 Kristin Fouquet
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