Elephant (1988) is the last collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver. They were the final seven stories Carver wrote before his death, and only appeared as a separate book in Great Britain. In the United States, they were included as a section of Where I'm Calling From: New & Selected Stories (1988).
Stories
The collection contains the following stories:
Boxes
The narrator and Jill find each other after failed marriages. Soon after they set up a household, their comfortable life is disrupted by the arrival of the narrator's seventy-year-old mother. She is constantly on the move, going from one place to another, hoping to find a good life, but is always disappointed by what she encounters. When she moves to her son's community, she dislikes everything about it. No sooner does she move into her quarters then she packs her possessions into boxes (the story's title) in preparation to return to California. A half year passes before she finally departs. During this time, Jill's easy going response to the mother's disruptive presence keeps the narrator and Jill's relationship on even keel. When the mother finally heads back to California in her packed car, both she and her son realize that they are not likely to see each other again.
Whoever Was Using This Bed
A 3:00 am phone call wakes the narrator and his wife, Iris, from a deep sleep. When the narrator answers the phone, a woman's voice asks to speak to "Bud." The narrator tells the woman she has a wrong number and hangs up. But she persistently calls back, forcing him to take the phone off the hook. Once back in bed, Iris starts chain smoking and engages the narrator in conversation. The narrator desperately wants to go back to sleep, but he gets caught up in Iris's ruminations. He begins chain smoking as well. Iris talks about the dream the phone call interrupted. She doesn't remember the details, but she recalls that the dream did not include the narrator, which upsets him. As the night moves on, the narrator is very much aware of the passage of time, and hopes to be able to catch some sleep before daybreak, when he needs to get up to go to work. But he is engaged in the chat with his wife. Ultimately, the conversation focuses on whether one partner will "pull the plug" on the other if either were mortally incapacitated. Iris wants the narrator to pull the plug, but after some thought, the narrator asks Iris to let the doctors do what they can do. Don't pull the plug. At daybreak, the narrator gets up and goes to work. Throughout the day he reflects on his conversation with Iris and on his fatigue. That night, the phone rings and the familiar woman's voice asks for "Bud." While the narrator is holding the phone, Iris pulls the plug—and disconnects the phone.
Intimacy
The narrator has achieved a measure of public recognition as a writer. While on the road, he drops by his ex-wife's house unannounced. It has been four years since they last met. When she sees him, she launches into a non-stop soliloquy, enumerating her hurts and anger at his betrayal. Through her onslaught, it is clear that she cared dearly for him and the lost life they built together. After her diatribe dies down, the narrator drops to his knees before her, holding the hem of her dress. She becomes self-conscious, then worries that her new husband will return home and find them together. She indicates that the reason he visited her was to gain new material for his stories. She asks him to leave. He departs.