So Much Water So Close to Home and The Third Thing that Killed My Father Off by Raymond Carver Excellent, if somewhat strange tales

 So Much Water So Close to Home and The Third Thing that Killed My Father Off by Raymond Carver

Excellent, if somewhat strange tales


So Much Water So Close to Home
Claire, her husband Stuart and some of his friends are the heroes of this narrative.

The men are actually in the roles of, if not the bad guys, at least people with an ambiguous attitude.

As they went fishing, they have found the body of a dead young woman.

They dispute about the best course of action.

-          She is not moving anywhere, says one.

That may have settled the matter.
For they arrange their camping site and food.
Then they think about dragging the corpse from the water, so that it would not disappear.

They pull her by the fingers and then tie her.

At this point I was thinking that they are actually affecting the crime scene and may have destroyed evidence necessary to catch the killer.

Claire is mystified when she hears what happens.

-          She was dead anyway, comes the reply...

Nevertheless, she is concerned, if not obsessed with this matter.

To the point where her spouse says a few times

-          You are riling me

There is an awkward trip to the beautician where Claire says that she is going to the funeral.

There they talk. About the poor girl and the cookies she was given when she was a girl.

I loved it, but I'd say it was weird at times, which again contributed to the enjoyment.



The Third Thing that Killed My Father Off

As the narration starts, we learn that the three aforementioned things are

-          First -Pearl Harbor
-          Second -Father moving on to the farm
-          Third-Dummy

Dummy was a cleaning man, who died as well.

This is not a spoiler, for in the first sentences we read that father blames the death of Dummy on his wife.

She had a reputation for philandering.

Dummy was just a demeaning nickname, but that is the only way we now him.

People mocked the man who always had toilet paper in his upper pockets of the overalls he always wore...he never showed up in anything else.

Father did not believe in the gossip doing the rounds on account of the much younger wife of Dummy.


There are some passages involving bass fishing and then we reach a climax that I will not divulge and let you find all about it.
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