I love this idea—the way any story is an amalgam between the written version and your own experience. We could have a contest where people draw the kitchen table in my story, or in Carver’s, and everyone would depict it differently. The round table you had growing up, or plates on the wall in your grandmother’s kitchen—these details work themselves into the way you imagine the story. And that was what I was working with: not Carver’s story specifically, but my memory of his story.
- talking to Joe Fassler of The Atlantic about the new collection. Full interview is here.
(Honestly, if I had that kind of gumption, I’d ask folks to draw their Carver kitchens—to see what everybody thinks the What We Talk About When We Talk About Love kitchen looks like in their minds. Anyways, if anyone is the drawing-Carvering-good-sporting kind, I’ve enabled photo-replies for this post.)
