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Cathedral
Cathedral
Apr 19, 2025 12:39 AM

Author:Raymond Carver

Cathedral

Raymond Carver said it was possible 'to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring - with immense, even startling power'. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver's work to a more confidently poetic style.

Reviews

The twelve stories collected in his book Cathedral are remarkable for the originality of vision which he manages to convey in scrupulously simple prose. Carver's is a considerable and an enterprising talent

—— Guardian

Cathedral ought to establish his reputation as one of the most original new voices in fiction to appear from the United States for many years

—— Bill Buford , Times Literary Supplement

Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty, utterly free of pretence and affection, his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart

—— Washington Post

An important book in a unique career

—— New York Review of Books

I'm very fond of this book...It's very Southern Gothic...It's blisteringly good on systemic male violence against women...It also has moments of humour...It's written in a very lively, compelling way. It's a great book.

—— Sarah Waters, Radio 4 Open Book

I loved this book . . . Epic in breadth but glittering in its detail, The Shore is utterly absorbing.

—— Catherine O'Flynn

A vivid exploration of the struggle for autonomy and the many meanings of what we call home.

—— Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing

In her debut, Taylor has already mastered the most dastardly of high-wire acts; an epic tale that's neither overbearing nor overblown . . . The sprawling tale is marked by domestic violence, murder, rape, castration, drugs and magic; the isolated islands a shelter for some and a prison for others. But there are brilliant moments of intimate, quotidian despair, too.

—— Irish Independent

This is a tremendous debut novel featuring writing which is unusually evocative, often hauntingly so. The prospect of more to come from Taylor is exciting.

—— Independent on Sunday

This ambitious and magical novel is made all the more remarkable by its muscular prose redolent with atmosphere.

—— Daily Mail

Sara Taylor has a completely natural, unforced feel for language and voice: a remarkable debut.

—— Adam Thorpe

A precocious talent.

—— Irish Examiner

Ambiguous gender roles, grotesque situations and the whiff of decay hanging over The Shore – brilliantly imagined through the stench of chicken factories – lend a southern Gothic feel to the writing. There are sections of brutal realism, magic realism and speculative fiction. Other dystopias come to mind, notably David Mitchell’s time-hopping epic Cloud Atlas, but also Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and its themes of sexually transmitted plagues and subjugation of women.

—— Irish Times

A haunting and staggering debut novel, this is a multi-layered exploration of redneck Virginia through the eyes of its women.

—— Evening Standard magazine

An impressive debut novel

—— Sunday Times

An original new voice in fiction

—— Big Issue

Lyrical writing and quietly tragic storytelling

—— Huffington Post

A really promising debut . . . the beauty of it is astounding . . . enchanting.

—— Tiffany Jenkins

[A] savage yet hyper-readable debut … [a] harrowing, high-octane novel.

—— Observer, 'Paperback of the Week'

This is not a novel for the faint-hearted but dare to read it for the sinuous fluency of the writing.

—— Maureen Duffy

This is an outstanding book, one that makes the reader pause and take stock. It is unsettling, challenging and yet beautiful – made all the more so by the author’s pared back language and careful evocation of the land, marshes, oyster beds and crabs, and the miseries and small joys of island life … this is an extraordinary beginning to a literary career.

—— The Literary Shed

A superb first novel . . . [it is] a significant achievement to produce a book of this quality . . . [there is] a wonderful sense of place.

—— Graham Farmelo

Reminiscent of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and just as ambitious

—— Stylist

An impressive debut.

—— The Writes of Women

Already on the longlist for the Baileys Prize, this is an island story told in daisy-chain sequence, a series of succinct vignettes that come together as a vivid portrait of the Shore itself, until you can almost smell the salt air and the stench of slaughtered chicken.

—— For Books Sake

Some extraordinary images . . . a wonderful first novel.

—— Michael Arditti

Taylor’s prose is dreamy and surprisingly playful.

—— S magazine (Sunday Express)

A wonderful read.

—— Interzone

Exuberant, magical and incredibly ambitious, but Sara Taylor pulls it off with style.

—— The Bookbag

Taylor shows a special affinity with the lives of women that makes for a powerful debut

—— Independent on Sunday
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