‘Call If You Need Me’ by Carver

Raymond Carver is a famous writer whose importance in American literature is impossible to overestimate. His prose is exceptional, accurate and clear. In the 1980s a deep interest and vivid representation of the private lives of Carver’s characters became an innovation in literature of that time. ‘Call if You Need Me’ contains five brilliant stories which give the last look on the writer’s works. Reading his stories a person gets only a pleasure.

Raymond Carver’s book ‘Call if You Need Me’ appeared after the author’s death. It is a complete collection of fiction and it includes all of the prose collected in ‘No Heroics’ and five stories which were written by Carver in the second part of his life. The book ‘Call if You Need Me’ is a collection of stories which describe lives and small crises of ordinary people. The story ‘Call if You Need Me’ displays author’s unique prose style as he puts his characters, ordinary people, to solve everyday problems, family crises – in a word, ordinary life problems.

The plot structure of the story ‘Call if You Need Me’ consists of the major elements: exposition in which the author introduces characters, place of development of events; rising action, in other words, the crisis of several characters; climax, or turning point of the whole story; falling action and resolution. The author does not invent extraordinary things; he composes the plot of the story showing common situations in life. Every reader can be convinced of Carver’s talent, his unexpected and immediate writing having read the story. ‘Call if You Need Me’ is about the dissolution of a long-term marriage, one of the major themes of his stories.

The first part of the plot structure (exposition) in this story is the introduction of a married couple who decide to spend the summer together renting a summer place far from their house. This decision and the change of conditions is only an attempt to maintain their relationships. Thus, this is the beginning of the end of their marriage life. Rising action takes place when a couple discusses the possibility of having a dog. The episode with a dog is symbolic. This abstract from the story clearly demonstrates that these people will not live together and their attempt to ‘repair’ their marriage will not bring positive results like in the decision to have a dog.

The climax, or turning point, and falling action come when the couple has the final moment watching wild horses running. No one makes effective scenes like Carver does. The author uses a word ‘magic’ in the description of this moment. Symbolic words are characteristic for Carver’s works. His stories are full of delusive simplicity in the description of characters who attempt to make their lives better. Everyone gets a pleasure from reading them. In every page of ‘Call if You Need Me’, Raymond Carner shows his magnanimity and loyalty to his characters. He pictures relationships of a man and a woman with many nuances.

‘Call if You Need Me’ is a marvelous story, beautiful in every description, in every word. Much attention is paid to small details and moments in a couple’s life. Carver uses every word in a description. The author admires actions of people and they are everywhere in a story. He has a rare ability to look deep into a soul and display the inner feelings. Raymond Carner composes a story according to his plot structure. He masterly leads his readers to a final point in a story. The result, final point in a story is obvious and the author helps readers to see it.