Mel McGinnis
Mel McGinnis is the protagonist of one Carver’s most well-known stories: "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love." The title of the story is actually the topic of discussion among McGinnis and the other three main characters as they sit trading philosophical concepts couched in the author’s stripped down realistic dialogue. Some have suggested that the story is intended to be a modern updating of Plato’s “Symposium” in which a group of characters engaging in philosophical debate face the addition guest of the table of the effects of alcohol. McGinnis is no Platonic, however; instead of trying to keep the others from feeling the full effects of imbibing, he is intent on deliberately adding spirits to the mixture of spirited conversation, thus taking his place as one of the signature members of Carver's increasingly large cast of alcoholic characters.
"Bub"
One of the elements that of Carver’s short fiction that combines the artistry of minimalism with the craft of writing universal tales of woe is penchant for making even his more literary achievements instantly accessible to most. The narrator of what is easily Carver’s most anthologized story, “Cathedral” remains unnamed and so we only get to known him by the unimaginative nickname by which the character Robert refers to him. The accessibility here lies in the fact that we need never know the actual name of “Bub” to identify with his story of an unwanted blind man as an overnight guest disrupting his routine of routine, but who winds up experiencing one of those unexpected amazing connections people around us are making with strangers every day. One might even argue that the mystery of only knowing the narrator through the name given him by Robert actually serves to intensify one’s identification with him.
Anton Chekhov
Yes, that Anton Chekhov. He becomes a character in the story “Errand” which takes place as his life is drawing to a close. Tolstoy pays him a visit and the great writer of short fiction like Carver is in complete denial about the precarious state of his health and the approaching end to mortality.
The Baker
A mother arranges with a baker to create birthday cake for her son. Almost immediately, the boy is killed in an accident. The baker does not know that the cake he has baked but which still sits in his shop unpaid for and taking up space is for a child now dead. And so, he makes a series of increasingly inappropriate phone calls to the home of the grieving parents. The parents, on the other hand, are not aware that the seemingly insane baker is not aware of the circumstances surrounding that unpaid-for baked delicacy. In the end, communication is re-established, redemption is achieved and the baker becomes aware of a great philosophical truth in the world of Raymond Carver's "A Small Good Thing."
“He was glad he wasn't a florist. It was better to be feeding people."
The Fat Man and the Waitress
An extraordinarily fat man with good manners, a seemingly endless appetite and the conviction that he does not deserve blame for his girth does essentially nothing to make a waitress truly astounded by the size and appetite of the diner to think that his presence is something going to change everything for her. And yet, by the end of the story titled simply "Fat" that is exactly what she believes and most readers will likely understand without understanding why or how they understand.
Nan
Nan is the titular character in the story “The Student’s Wife” but her importance to this collection extends far beyond that odd and disturbing tale of yet another of the author’s husbands and wives growing inexorably apart. Nan has another problem to deal with besides her increasingly uncommunicative and alienated husband. She suffers from a disorder which will recur with enough frequency in Carver’s canon from this point forward that it can only be considered a major theme or symbol or metaphor or something: insomnia. Sleepless people litter Carver’s stories almost as frequently as nearly-empty bottles of alcohol, but Nan is the midwife who delivered this baby.
That Guy Living on His Front Lawn
That’s not the character’s actual name of course; the protagonist in “Why Don’t You Dance” is yet another of Carver’s heroes who could be you or me or the guy next door. His story is one that manages to pack just about everything Carver’s stories are known for into one unsettlingly weird turn of events: Alcohol, a wife and husband who've drifted apart, alienation from society, the increasing certainty that there is some sort of system out there in place and most of us don’t stand a chance, the desire to retain the semblance of normalcy even in the face of irrefutable evidence that things will never be normal again and, ultimately, just that tiny little crack of light suggesting hope is not just a thing to hold onto, but to never let go of. When Will Farrell played the character in a movie retitled Everything Must Go, the character given the name Nick Halsey.
