Great Regulars: That's a rigorous--

some might say brutal--standard, but it applies to [Raymond] Carver's work as well. In his late story "Intimacy," he admits as much, describing a writer's visit to his ex-wife, presumably to make amends, when in fact he is after material. "She says, I'm beginning to understand something. . . . ," Carver writes, after they go back and forth. "I think I know why you're here, even if you don't. But you're a slyboots. You know why you're here. You're on a fishing expedition. . . .

"Tell me about the knife, I say."

from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Raymond Carver revisited in 'Collected Stories'

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