Near the height of his powers, Raymond Carver was, says Olivia Laing in this enthralling travelogue-cum-memoir, "unreliable, paranoid and violent and, as he approached the nadir of his drinking … could barely write at all". Turns out he was also an appalling husband and a neglectful, resentful father. And there's worse. That revered unadorned Carver style likely resulted from alcohol's obliteration of his faculty for recall.
Reported by Independent 1 day ago.
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