Raymond Carver

A genius and the best short story writer I've ever had the pleasure of reading. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is divine.

Two boys; one was the head of the fish, the other the tail. He neglected to tell his partner a dark secret, as one might neglect to report a dead body if it meant the vacation would have to end. Carver takes what may have been mediocre metaphorical expressions and literalizes the figures as coextensive with the subject. Rather than deadening language, the effect is a re-enchantment of the mundane. The motor of the everyday serves up its own metaphors, as accidents.