I recently read a book called Flash Fiction, and the only story that clung to my memory afterward was one titled The Father by Raymond Carver. So I went to the library yesterday and borrowed this beautifully bound 1,019-page hardcover book with a multitude of his short stories and a smattering of his essays. Ray Carver also happens to be one of the authors whose work was on the syllabus of a writing class I took in college while studying English lit.