I do like Raymond Carver’s work and so I decided to start on this a little earlier, found it online and printed it out (some things don’t change–it’s easier to mark and read, though I may try sticking it into iPages and using their comment feature, just for grins).
Just a couple pages in, but these things shout out to me: short, clipped sentences; little imagery, first person pov is really telling of the emotion–yet saying without saying. On this last point, I get a strong feeling of resentment on the part of the first person narrator, the husband, towards the blind man–beyond the obviously stated. For example, while he offers "But instead of dying, she got sick. She threw up. Her offier–why should he have a name? he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want?–" that clearly shows disdain for his wife’s first husband, it points out clearly that he narrator did not give a name to "the blind man" either up to this point in the story and yet it has focused on him more definitely than anyone else, even starting his story out with "This blind man…"
A lot of information given here in the opening, and we get a clear view of the narrator through his descriptions and opinions of others. There is a jealousy over his wife’s associations with the other two men.
More to come.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology