I posted last week about the ruckus over the republication of an redacted version of Hemingway's posthumous Paris memoir, A Moveable Feast. Now comes word of the republication of many of the late Raymond Carver's short stories in significantly different forms. The situations are quite different. From what I've read, Carver always disapproved of many of the cuts forced upon him by his bullying magazine—and later book—editor Gordon Lish. So you can't really blame his wife and executrix Tess Gallagher for wanting to bring out a new volume of Carver's work in their "original" versions. That said, count me in the category of Carver fans who prefer the Lish-pruned What We Talk About When We Talk About Love to Carver's last original collection, the "expansive" and "generous" Cathedral.
And, I'm sorry, Beginners is not a very interesting name for a book of stories, while What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (or WWTAWWTAL, if you're texting) is fookin' brilliant.