Late fragment

Stephen King has written a very trenchant piece in the NY Times on Carol Sklenicka's new biography of Raymond Carver. King is very obviously a fan of the writer - of his writing. Carver, the man, his self-destructive hubris, his, certainly earliest, tendency towards cruelty and excess, King, isn't quite so fond. And understandably so. The book really comes into its own; and where it differs from the majority of books on Carver, when it discusses the writer's relationship with his editor grise, Gordon Lish...Sklenicka (and King) acknowledge Carver's debt to the monomaniacal Lish - editorially, there can have been few better practitioners of the art - but, watch out! 'Life and Stories,' is available now.