#524 Fat- Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver was the second author I read for this project
more than 500 stories ago, but I only read a few from his Fires collection. You
can't have a project about short stories and skimp on the Raymond Carver so here
is some more. I picked up his book, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (In the
name of redundancy, I’m hoping that the person in the title is named: Please.
Ha!)
This is a cartoonish scene about a waitress serving an
extremely obese gentleman. He is polite, and proper and quiet, but he is morbidly
fat and his fingers are three times too large. When he orders and finishes the
endless supply of bread he speaks in the plural “we.” As is “We normally don’t
eat like this.”
Later in bed with the chef from the restaurant she imagines
herself as fat and partner a tiny thing. Bizarre. The story ends with her
saying that her life is about to change. I guess we’re supposed to think that
she is pregnant and the fat man was a metaphor for someone eating for two. Or
maybe he symbolizes gluttony and complacency and her believing that her life
will change is a tragic miscalculation. Or maybe this is u just a funny story
about a fat man in a restaurant and
gaggle of judgmental servers.
If there was symbolism here I missed, I’m wondering what the
fat fingers represented.
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