The Bath (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Raymond Carver
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Work: Short story
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Children, Parents and children, Death or dying, Sick persons, Loneliness, Bereavement or grief, Hospitals, Telephones
“The Bath,” which originally appeared in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, reappeared in the Cathedral collection, revised and renamed “A Small, Good Thing.” The second version is also reprinted in Carver's final collection, Where I’m Calling From.
Both versions of the story focus on a couple whose son is hit by a car on his eighth birthday and who is hospitalized and in a coma. This horrifying event is made more upsetting by the fact that the couple receives annoying anonymous telephone calls from a baker from whom the wife had earlier...
[The entire page is 764 words long]
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