The Explicator

ISSN: 0014-4940 (Print) 1939-926X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vexp20

Carver’s Chef’s House

John Magee

To cite this article: John Magee (1997) Carver’s Chef’s House, The Explicator, 55:2, 111-112,
DOI: 10.1080/00144940.1997.11484141

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00144940.1997.11484141

Published online: 22 Oct 2015.

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 Newfound Poems by Edmund Spenser," Spenser Studies VII (1987): 199-238; and five recent
studies of literary sprezzatura (1995-96) in The Explicator.
2. Alan Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (New York: Knopf, 1959, 1970)
7-54.
3. Sillitoe I, 14.
4. Alden Nowlan, ''The Critic," Playing the Jesus Game, 94. Poems in this volume are "typed,"
so that vertical columns-potential codeline strings--occur automatically. Alden's cover shows a
fancifully elaborated cross that might allude to an acrostic coterie game and mystical wit.
5. Nowlan, Playing, 46.
6. Ann Evory, ed., Contemporary Authors, NR Series (Detroit: Gale, 1982) 5:407.
7. Keath Fraser, "Notes on Alden Nowlan" (revised), Canadian Literature 45 (1970): 41-51,
qtd. Contemporary Literary Criticism, Sharon R. Gunton and Laurie Lanzen Harris, eds. (Detroit:
Downloaded by [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] at 21:48 01 June 2016

Gale, 1980) 15:398.

WORK CITED
Nowlan, Alden. ''The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner." Bread, Wine and Salt (Toronto:
Clarke, Irwin & Co. Ltd., 1967) 61.

Carver's CHEF'S HOUSE

Raymond Carver's "Chef's House" is an accurate step-by-step portrayal of
an alcoholic's denial. The short story first appeared in The New Yorker in
November 1981, four years after Carver achieved lasting sobriety.
In the story, Wes, an alcoholic, rents a furnished house owned by a "recov-
ered" (297) alcoholic named Chef. Wes then calls his wife, the narrator of the
story, to join him. He is on the wagon, he tells her, and besides, he has quit his
girlfriend. His wife, who is nameless throughout the story, wants him to be the
old Wes, the one he was before they married. He starts to cry over the tele-
phone, so she takes that as a sign of his good intentions and joins Wes in
Chef's house. They live together one summer like young lovers, drinking only
juice and coffee during the day, Wes attending AA meetings in the evenings.
They make love in the night: "At night Wes would take me in his arms and ask
me if I was still his girl" (298). Then one afternoon Chef comes by and
announces that he will have to have the house back because his daughter's
husband has run off and left her. This reversal of fortune upsets Wes so much
he returns to the bottle.
There are six steps in Wes's alcoholic denial. His first was to move, and
changing places is not good. It is called a "geographic cure" and seldom
works. An alcoholic takes his alcoholism with him. His second step of going
to a "recovered" alcoholic's place also is not good, for that place is awash with
ghosts of the past. Moreover, a signal of what is to come is in the word "recov-
ered." Alcoholics in recovery hesitate to call themselves "recovered." They

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 prefer "recovering," for a true alcoholic is always an alcoholic. The reader
immediately sees Wes's faulty reasoning. His intentions at the time may be
good, but one can go on the wagon in one's own backyard. Wes is setting both
himself and his wife up for a fall.
Third, Wes leaves his girlfriend, which is sadly ironic. An alcoholic in denial
never leaves his girlfriend, who is, really, the bottle. Alcohol is a powerful,
beguiling lover, and to a true alcoholic in denial the lover is always faithful.
Fourth, the true test of Wes's resolve to quit drinking comes with Chef's
wanting his house back. Indeed, Chef is an ironic word here. The man is a
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"recovered" alcoholic, but his house is a cauldron of memories, and while Wes
is living in it he is in a stew, or stewing, for he is still in denial; an alcoholic
in denial will jump the wagon at the flrst excuse.
Fifth, once Wes decides to return to the bottle he rationalizes his predica-
ment. His wife notices something in his look as soon as he receives Chef's
news: "this look about him. I knew that look" (300). His principal rational-
ization is, "We were born who we are" (301). That is true. But alcoholics don't
have to drink. There is a saying in AA that "One drink is too much and a thou-
sand aren't enough." Wes wants to get drunk. It is that simple.
Finally, Wes, paradoxically, doesn't run to the nearest carryout. He doesn't
have to. Once he has made up his mind to drink, there is plenty of time. He is
enjoying the anticipation of the flrst drink, much like a lover anticipating that
flrst kiss and the subsequent "loving." Furthermore, deep inside Wes knows
that however sweet that flrst kiss the outcome will be a bad one. Moreover, he
also knows that his "girlfriend" is a very patient lover.

-JOHN MAGEE, Ohio Northern University

WORK CITED
Carver, Raymond. "Chef's House." Where I'm Calling From. New York: Vintage, 1989.

Atwood's EDffiLE WOMAN and SURFACING

In his study of Margaret Atwood's second novel, Surfacing, George Wood-

cock asserts that Joe, the taciturn lover of the novel's unnamed narrator, is "the
most enigmatic character in the book" and asks, "is he deep or is he just
dumb?" (52). Atwood, though, seems to give an important clue to our under-
standing of the character by reference to her earlier novel, The Edible Woman,
thereby providing an intriguing perspective for considering both works.

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