Do you like stories about downbeat alcoholics in America? Would you like to peer through their windows and witness just a slice of their every day misery? How about if you did so for every window on any given street to discover that every life was like this, a slightly different story each time, but all similar flavours of alcohol drenched, unfulfilled bleakness? If this sounds appealing you will love the world of Raymond Carver. His stories are stylistically succinct, important, and impressive, but a long way from enjoyable, at least for me.