Carver's body of work can, and should, be read for its socio-political connotations. Hailing from a poor working class background, Carver remained acutely aware of the problems facing Americans of the middle and lower classes. Such plights and blights became the backbone of most of his work. He writes about the lives of chimney sweeps and factory workers, the humble people who so often are forgotten. Though he portrays them as hard-working, he also does not shy aware from issues of domestic abuse and alcoholism.
Carver's own struggles with alcohol are well-documented, as is the physical abuse directed towards his own wife. When writing about such matters in his work, it is evident that they are deeply personal. Alcoholism is among the most prominent figures across all his stories. "Where I'm Calling From" takes place in a rehabilitation facility and "Chef's House" involves an alcoholic in recovery. Even stories that don't directly address alcoholism involve drinking in some capacity. Carver does not shy away from depicting the disease in all its ugly dimensions. He writes of the rage and the destruction, like Burt who cuts his estranged wife's phone line in "A Serious Talk." Where author writers can be said to glamorize addiction, the same cannot be said of Carver.
At the same instance, Carver's work has a redemptive quality. While he writes of desolation, he also writes of hope. Characters like Terri in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" lived through horrible experiences, but were able to emerge to live better lives. While the narrator of "Cathedral" is openly rude to the blind man, he eventually grows to accept him and find kinship as they draw a cathedral together. Just as there is alcoholism, there is the opportunity for sobriety, which Carver found later in life. For this reason, some may find the work of Carver inspiring, even through the bleakness.
Above all, Carver's works are meditations on relationships. These relations may be romantic, platonic, hateful or combinations or both. They involve colleagues, families, lovers and friends. They may be healthy, like the young couple in "Why Don't You Dance?", distant and cold, like the protagonist of "Why Don't You Dance?," or violent and murderous, like Dummy and his wife in "The Third Thing that Killed My Father Off." Though the nature of the relationships change in each story, it is important to note their general centrality in Carver's work.
When Carver's work is discussed, the conversation also must include mentioning the editing of Carver's work. For much of his career, Carver employed the editor Gordon Lish. Famously, Lish proved to be a ruthless editor, suggesting Carver remove much of the content of his stories. While Carver eventually became known as a master of the sparse minimalist style much of this is owed to the editing of Lish. The two had a complicated relationship and Carver despised much of Lish's work. Therefore, when one reads Carver it is imperative that they expand his vision, not reduce it. Instead of narrowing into a single aspect, as Lish did, Carver as the author wanted a larger, wider vision. Carver's work is incredibly rich and detailed and must be appreciated not just for its evocative sparseness and economy of language, but also its connection to everyday life and the lived human experience.
