It`s the 1970s, and Ralph Crawford is a San Francisco writer on the way up. His wife, Alice Ann, however, is tired of his philandering, drunkenness, and extravagance--not to mention his tendency to use real-life incidents in his fiction. Meanwhile, Ralph`s friend Jim, also a writer but a failed one, threatens to reveal Ralph`s secrets to a mysterious woman named Lindsay, who lives in Montana. In the course of the story, this dark foursome learns much about life and art, and the perils inherent in both enterprises. Crawford is based on the writer Raymond Carver--and his friend Jim is an autobiographical portrait of the author of these tales, Chuck Kinder. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.