Melville House Books

A new movie based on the Raymond Carver story “So Much Water, So Close to Home” is to star American actress Laura Linney and be called Jindabyne. As an Agence France Press story explains, the story is “set in Australia” and “it tells the story of a group of men who discover the body of an Aborigine girl in the water while fishing. But instead of notifying authorities of the murder immediately, they decide to proceed with their fishing trip, igniting a tremendous scandal in their town.” Of course, the Carver story was set in California, had nothing to do with Aborigines, and never took the men to a town.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.