Summary

Jamison opens Chapter Fourteen, "Homecoming" with an examination of Raymond Carver's writing. At Iowa City, she had been surrounded by tales of Carver's mythic drinking escapades. After doing research, she learns that he in actuality his creativity had been challenged by his drinking years. He had had to struggle to work against his drinking years to produce subtle and complex stories. This pushes against the notion that drinking is tied to greater creativity. Jamison learns that sober Carver was a far cry from the drunk rogues of the white logic. He even tried to craft himself into his own sober legend. His wife, Maryann, insists that he started writing almost immediately after he stopped drinking. Carver once referred to good fiction as bringing "the news from one world to another" (437). Jamison sees this as applying to Carver. In a way, he took his drunken...