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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love:…
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories (original 1981; edition 1989)

by Raymond Carver

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3,840613,188 (4.13)72
In his second collection, including the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman, Raymond Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one's way through the dark.… (more)
Member:PeRa1970
Title:What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories
Authors:Raymond Carver
Info:Vintage (1989), Paperback, 176 pages
Collections:Read but unowned
Rating:****
Tags:Read in 2010, Short Stories, Movie Tie-In, Literature, Classics, Relationships, Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic Abuse

Work Information

What We Talk about When We Talk about Love by Raymond Carver (1981)

  1. 40
    Beginners by Raymond Carver (chrisharpe)
    chrisharpe: "Beginners" is the version Carver submitted to his editor, Gordon Lish, under the author's title. Lish made significant cuts, changed character's names and removed dialogue to produce the version that made Carver's name: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".… (more)
  2. 20
    The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson (whitewavedarling)
    whitewavedarling: Similar styles and character types, though Jackson's stories are a bit more developed in regard to character and plot. Both authors have a tendency of working toward endings that leave a reader making final decisions instead of tying everything up fully with a more traditional ending.… (more)
  3. 00
    Sleepwalk: and Other Stories by Adrian Tomine (bsbllbsbll)
    bsbllbsbll: Tomine captures Carver's immense talent for creating intense emotions in short spaces.
  4. 00
    Letti Park by Judith Hermann (JuliaMaria)
    JuliaMaria: Jedes Wort zählt.
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» See also 72 mentions

English (58)  Spanish (2)  Swedish (1)  All languages (61)
Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)
A couple of the stories hit home for me. The writing is good minimalist fair. Unfortunately, most of the stories didn't appeal to me. The writing isn't my taste either. Does this make sense? I could see why many would love this book of stories, but for me I will pass on future Carver. ( )
  wvlibrarydude | Jan 14, 2024 |
The most interesting thing about this book to me is that Raymond Carver's widow Tess Gallagher claims that Carver wrote much longer stories and his editor cut them down without Carver's blessing. You can read a NYT article about it here.

I tracked down these "original" versions of the stories and they are much more fleshed out and provide a lot of answers to things that made me go "Huh?" in the WWTAWWTAL versions. For example, the story "The Bath" (where a mother has a cake made for her son who's later hospitalized after being hit by a car) is kind of unsatisfactory in the authoritative version. But the longer version I read called "A Small, Good Thing" had so much more going on. It was almost kind of redemptive.

So, if you read this, I'd recommend going out and finding the longer versions of some of these stories. Totally worth it, and good fodder for discussion.

( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
When you read a paper looking for the book reviews, you turn to The Arts section. Sometimes it's even called The Arts & Style Section. Consequently, when you read a work of fiction, you expect some arts & style. Sadly,this collection of short stories has neither. I am at a complete loss as to why Carver has won so many awards, and is considered such an important and influential American writer. His writing is so stark and so simple. These stories could have been written by a High School student in an English Composition class. Now, most of Carver's characters lead stark and simple lives, so I can accept that he wants the writing to mirror the characters. But c'mon, give me a little bit of alliteration, a couple of similes, a few metaphors. That's not to much to ask for, is it ? ( )
  kevinkevbo | Jul 14, 2023 |
I felt like I was there I will read it again and again. Never been to the Northwest but I have, feel like each character I feel like I've had the same moments in my life, the whole book is like a child watching their parents argue from the edge of the doorway. Had a new strategy with this short story collection because I read Strange Pilgrims too quickly: read one story in the morning, and at nigh, read the same story. Would recommend, good way to read collections thank you. ( )
  BAGGED_RAT | Mar 26, 2023 |
"I admit it's not much of a story." (pg. 112)

I was well-primed to explore and enjoy Raymond Carver's writing. I'm a big fan of the cool, clipped American style, the sort honed to perfection by Ernest Hemingway and his 'iceberg theory', and my interest in Carver was also piqued by the role the title story of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love played in the 2014 film Birdman. Unfortunately, my experience with Carver's most famous work was one of disappointment, flavourlessness and boredom.

Carver's prose is scraped to the bone and yet it also feels inflated. It has nothing really to say, and says it with a sort of brittleness, a halting walk far removed from the deft, confident stride and precision of other American 'iceberg' or hard-boiled writing. The prose says so little the reader has to work overtime just to find anything. Some of the commentaries and analyses I've read are shockingly obese, finding false genius in banal happenings. They're far more entertaining than Carver himself: an obvious metaphor is lauded as a keystone, a clumsily-recited list of household objects a totem representing all of human existence. If Carver had written "the cat sat on the mat", to these people it would no doubt symbolise the yearning of all living creatures to find some place where they could rest their burdens, always tragically aware that the mat is not fixed and that they must move on from their slumber at some indeterminate time.

There is a weak undercurrent simmering in some of the stories, but nothing remarkable. On this evidence, Carver has nothing to say as a writer: he's grasping at clichéd, cookie-cutter episodes of disaffected American suburbia to perform a few simple prose tricks. He presents abusive and repressed relationships, alcoholics, bores and philanderers – presents them, but doesn't have any insight into them, let alone resolution. The overwhelming feeling for this reader was of plainness, like eating a pack of ready-salted crisps and knowing just a dash of vinegar would go a long way. The only lesson of writing to be found here is that you can't have an iceberg in such shallow water. ( )
  MikeFutcher | Jan 11, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)
Carvers Meisterschaft liegt in der Auslassung, in der planvollen Konstruktion textueller Gebilde, die auf dem ersten Blick lediglich triviale oder banale Oberflächen abbilden, unter denen jedoch Tiefen oder Untiefen lauern, auf die der Leser kaum vorbereitet ist. Häufig schmuggelt Carver unmerklich Tretminen in die Texte, die zunächst wie kaum merkliche Beiläufigkeiten erscheinen und erst am Schluss ihre Sprengkraft offenbaren. Diese Technik verleiht den Geschichten Carvers eine verstörende Irritation, die das vie quotiedienne als unablässige Sequenz von Katastrophen erfahren lässt. Die Lektüre vermittelt den Eindruck, als ob man den Inhalt zwischen den Zeilen nicht erfasst habe. "Da war noch mehr an der Geschichte", resümiert einer von Carvers Protagonisten, "und sie versuchte, es sich ein für alle Mal von der Seele zu reden. Nach einiger Zeit gab sie den Versuch auf."
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Carver, Raymondprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Duranti, RiccardoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Frielinghaus, HelmutTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gustafsson, KerstinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mattila, RaijaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pivano, FernandaAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Puławski, KrzysztofTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rolin, GabrielleTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Udina, DolorsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zberro, NathalieTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zulaika Goicoechea, JesúsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zulaika, JesúsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Tess Gallagher
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(From Why Don't You Dance?) In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom suite in his front yard.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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In his second collection, including the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman, Raymond Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one's way through the dark.

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Book description
Contents:
  • Why Don't You Dance?
  • Viewfinder
  • Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit
  • Gazebo
  • I Could See the Smallest Things
  • Sacks
  • The Bath
  • Tell the Women We're Going
  • After the Denim
  • So Much Water So Close to Home
  • The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off
  • A Serious Talk
  • The Calm
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Everything Stuck to Him
  • What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
  • One More Thing
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