Appreciation …

…  Champagne wishes. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In “Careful,” a man named Lloyd whose marriage has fallen apart is staying alone in a shabby apartment, where he’s trying to get his drinking under control by drinking only champagne. This detail is one of Carver’s many knowing alcoholic references, and it’s funny too. Champagne, of all drinks, in that sad place, being drunk alone. The story shows us a person in decline, a decline that everyone around him is worried about but that he is not fully in on himself. He’s in the “so what” part you eventually get to on the long way down.