Where I'm Calling From

Selected Stories

By: Raymond Carver

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the great practitioners of the American short story. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form. Together, these 37 stories give us a superb overview of Carver's life work and show us why he was so widely imitated but never equaled.

©1988 Tess Gallagher (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"No fiction collection should be without this book." ( Library Journal)

Amazingly great stories among the mediocre

There's no question in my mind that Raymond Carver was a great writer. I thought some of these stories had profound and timeless insights. Others described trivial, uninteresting events that bored me, but I think they were authentic descriptions of events, language and popular culture in "the Silent Generation" era. The narrator was very good.

Essential Short Stories

Would you consider the audio edition of Where I'm Calling From to be better than the print version?

I have never read the print version.

What other book might you compare Where I'm Calling From to and why?

I have not read a similar compilation

What does Norman Dietz bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration was just wonderful bringing the stories home and to the heart.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This really should be listened to in pieces, digesting the impact of each story separately

Any additional comments?

A masterful storyteller keeping it down to earth.

Great Stories, Poor Narration

Carver's stories are brilliant, but the narration, I'm sad to say, put me to sleep. I had to goose speed to 1.25 x normal to make it tolerable. This one is better read in print or ebook.

Amazing writer, amazing narrator!

I recently became interested in short stories because I think it’s important to get a visual experience of what our natural everyday language looks like. We read to educate ourselves about so many topics but in our daily life we use ordinary language like kinds of things Ray Carver writes about. I think that reading that style of natural conversation we use might ultimately make us better speakers and help us form our thoughts more clearly and efficiently. In my opinion,Ray Carver is a master of this ordinary style of our language; Norman Dietz has a great voice as a narrator.

my 3 favorites in this book...

are the stories about the blind man, the baker and the letter not in his wife's handwriting.