Cathedral By Raymond Carver By May Monten on Dec 28, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

This is a collection of short stories that was published in 1984. The author, Raymond Carver, writes in a clear unadorned style that is often called "minimalism."

I studied short-story writing in the 1980s, and Raymond Carver was a huge influence on short-story writers at the time.

Today, Carver may be best known because of Robert Altman's movie "Short Cuts," which was based on several Carver stories.

"Cathedral" is a very good collection, All the stories are good, but my favorites are the first, "Feathers," and the last, the title story of the collection, "Cathedral."

What makes Carver's stories magical to me is that things happen that aren't directly stated, and yet the reader intuitively understands. I don't know how Carver does that! I've read "Feathers" many times, trying to figure it out, but it remains a mystery.