The Audio Book Club on Raymond CarverOur critics discuss "A Small Good Thing" and "The Bath."
Posted Monday, Nov. 16, 2009, at 9:51 AM ETTo listen to the Slate Audio Book Club discussion of Raymond Carver's "A Small Good Thing," click the arrow on the player below.
PRINT
DISCUSS
E-MAIL
RSS
RECOMMEND...
Facebook
MySpace
Mixx
Digg
Reddit
del.icio.us
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Sphere
StumbleUponYou can also download the audio file here or click here to subscribe to the Slate Audio Book Club feed in iTunes.
Get your 14-day free trial of Audio Book Club sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here.
This month, the Audio Book Club tackles two versions of a Raymond Carver story—"A Small Good Thing" and "The Bath." The former represents Carver's original vision, whereas the latter was heavily edited by Knopf's Gordon Lish. You can find both in the recently published Library of American compendium of Carver's stories.
In a roughly 45-minute book club, Slate's critics discuss the differences between the two versions and the merits of each. They also broach the question of whether Lish went too far by altering the message and tone of Carver's story as well as his style.
Slate's Audio Book Club now comes to you on the third Monday of every month. Our selection for December is Vladimir Nabokov's The Original of Laura. Look for our discussion on iTunes or on the Slate home page on Monday, Dec. 21. Also, please become a fan of the Audio Book Club on Facebook.
You can also listen to any of our previous club meetings through our iTunes feed or by clicking on the links below. To download the MP3 file, right-click (Windows) or hold down the Control key while you click (Mac), and then use the "save" or "download" command to save the audio file to your hard drive.
The Anthologist, by Nicholson Baker
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
A Vindication of Love, by Cristina Nehring
Thy Neighbor's Wife, by Gay Talese
"The Swimmer," by John Cheever, and "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," by Flannery O'Connor
Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Night of the Gun, by David Carr
American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Beautiful Children, by Charles Bock
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
Independence Day, by Richard Ford
The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Everyman, by Philip Roth
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
Questions? Comments? Write to us at . (E-mailers may be quoted by name unless they request otherwise.)
The Scariest Thing Gen. McChrystal Told Congress About Afghanistan
Is It Irresponsible To Give Your Kids Cell Phones in the Age of Sexting?
The Obama Administration Finally Gets Serious About Transparency
So Are We Done Cleaning Up the Exxon Valdez Spill Yet?
What, Exactly, Do You Do at a Climate-Change Conference?
The World's Greatest Boxer Is Running for Office. Don't Vote for Him.
