"One of the true contemporary masters." –
The New York Review of Books "Carver's fiction is so spare in manner that it takes a time before one realizes how completely a whole culture and a whole moral condition is represented by even the most seemingly slight sketch. This second volume of stories is clearly the work of a full-grown master." –Frank Kermode
"Raymond Carver's America is ... clouded by pain and the loss of dreams, but it is not as fragile as it looks. It is a place of survivors and a place of stories.... [Carver] has done what many of the most gifted writers fail to do: He has invented a country of his own, like no other except that very world, as Wordsworth said, which is the world to all of us." –
The New York Times Book Review "Splendid.... The collection as a whole, unlike most, begins to grow and resonate in a wonderful cumulative effect." –
Chicago Tribune Book World "Carver not only enchants, he convinces." –
Time
