"Fat" is the first story in Raymond Carver's collection Will You Please Be Quiet Please?. The story is framed as a conversation where an unnamed woman tells a story to her friend Rita about serving an extremely fat man at the restaurant where she works. The waitress takes the fat man's large order and brings it to the kitchen. She is approached by one of her co-workers who says, "Who's your fat friend?"
The narrator serves the fat man bread and a caesar salad. Despite her co-workers' jabs, she talks to her customer, making an effort to appear helpful. After serving the man a special dessert with a big bowl of vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup to the side, the man says, "we have not always eaten like this...but there is no choice."
Later that night the waitress is lying in bed where she is violated by her partner Rudy. She admits that while this happened, she felt enormously fat like the customer she served earlier. Rita doesn't seem to understand the point of the narrator's story . The narrator admits to the reader that she feels depressed and that she feels her life is going to change.
In Raymond Carver's fiction small actions and statements mean a lot. It's easy to read one of his stories and feel like absolutely nothing meaningful has happened. But that is usually not the case. It's necessary to read Carver's stories at least twice to uncover the deeper meanings. This is my favorite thing about Carver's writing style -- how seemingly insignificant actions are revealing.
In this story the most telling action is the fat man's admission that there is no choice. He wants the waitress to understand that he should not be blamed for the way he eats. Just this one statement adds psychological depth to this character. It also speaks to a larger theme of control, specifically the question of if someone can be blamed for their actions if they are not in control. The narrator compares herself to the fat man when she is raped to illustrate her lack of control. This explains why the narrator treats her customer so well when her co-workers are quick to make fun of the fat man.
It's amazing that such a small and seemingly insignificant story deals with such a universal theme. In my opinion this is the most useful effect of Carver's minimalist style. It always feels like something is missing from his stories and this is most likely true. Carver's editor Gordon Lish was a ruthless editor who made Carver trim his stories down to the bare essentials. Without Lish's help, Carver's fictions would perhaps say too much and lose their ability to speak to universal themes. Despite its short length, "Fat" is a great illustration of Carver's minimalist style.
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