Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Vintage (1989), Paperback, 176 pages
Description
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.
Media reviews
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
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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." Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member wunderkind
Carver is very spare and very depressing, at least at first. I must admit that I wasn't sure I liked his stories much in the beginning, but about halfway through (I think with the story "So Much Water So Close to Home") I warmed up to him, and by the end I loved the overall effect Carver achieved.
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A critical blurb from Tim O'Brien on the back of the book says it better than I can: "The collection as a whole, unlike most, begins to grow and resonate in a wonderful cumulative effect." I totally agree with that; even Lorrie Moore, whose stories I absolutely love, hasn't achieved that kind of cohesion with her collections. Carver is very subtle, so reading one or two stories by him won't do it--the whole collection needs to be read through, and I would guess it's best to do it quickly, like I did. It's the mood that's important, not the individual stories (which often don't even have plots, just character interactions), and Carver captures a sense of the emotionally seedy underbelly of America. It's honest and blunt and would be depressing if it weren't so good. Show Less
LibraryThing member EricKibler
I had just a few more stories to read in this book and I finally finished it. That's the great thing about short story collections. Finish a story, put a bookmark in it, and you can pick it up again after a long absence without starting over again.
Carver has become one of my favorites. The
I've been reading his work generally in the order written. In the title story has Carver moving into new territory. Rather than the usual sparse dialog that marks his first stories, it has a group of four relatively articulate friends talking over drinks about what constitutes love. The reality of love is that it is often violent and tinged with madness. It often seems to disappear slice by infinitesimal slice until it's gone, leaving you wonder whether it was ever there. Yet its saving grace is that people always manage to love again.
Carver has become one of my favorites. The
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plainspoken characters. The stark but beautiful use of nature. The unexpected volatility and tenderness of his characters. The specter of sometimes sinister doings. The endings that sometimes provoke a guffaw, sometimes make you scratch your head.I've been reading his work generally in the order written. In the title story has Carver moving into new territory. Rather than the usual sparse dialog that marks his first stories, it has a group of four relatively articulate friends talking over drinks about what constitutes love. The reality of love is that it is often violent and tinged with madness. It often seems to disappear slice by infinitesimal slice until it's gone, leaving you wonder whether it was ever there. Yet its saving grace is that people always manage to love again.
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LibraryThing member benjamin.duffy
Read it in a day, was utterly blown away. It's a collection of unrelated short stories that somehow feel related, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I know I'm not exactly early to the Carver party, so I'll save all the hackneyed praise about his evocative minimalist prose raw
I wish I'd had this book in my life when I was going through my divorce. It wouldn't have fixed anything, or even made me feel better about it, but when you're at true rock bottom, that isn't what you're looking for; only some confirmation that this is survivable.
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gin-soaked quiet desperation slice-of-life vignette blah blah blah. If you want to read that kind of review, randomly sample other reviews of this book, any of which probably said it better than I could, and long before.I wish I'd had this book in my life when I was going through my divorce. It wouldn't have fixed anything, or even made me feel better about it, but when you're at true rock bottom, that isn't what you're looking for; only some confirmation that this is survivable.
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LibraryThing member george.d.ross
On my first reading, I found it hard to see part the dated elements of so many of the stories. I don't know why that bothered me, except maybe that the 70s are both recent enough and distant enough that it's hard to read stories from that era without smirking a little. The characters are like us
Or maybe that was always true of Carver. I don't know, but in subsequent readings, his style really got under my skin. I love the way he leaves you guessing, hiding his Big Ideas under oblique dialogue, carefully recorded details, and gallons of alcohol.
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and unlike us in precisely uncomfortable ways.Or maybe that was always true of Carver. I don't know, but in subsequent readings, his style really got under my skin. I love the way he leaves you guessing, hiding his Big Ideas under oblique dialogue, carefully recorded details, and gallons of alcohol.
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LibraryThing member msf59
“Drinking’s funny. When I look back on it, all of our important decisions have been figured out when we were drinking. Even when we talked about having to cut back on drinking, we’d be sitting at the kitchen table or out at the picnic table with a six-pack or whiskey.”
“A man can go along
“and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.”
Carver writes spare, slices of American life. Stories of love, booze, pain, infidelity and death. These tales take place, in small towns, trailer parks and on camping trips. There is just enough dry wit, to keep it keep the bleakness at bay.
I first discovered Carver, while reading Short Cuts: Selected Stories, which was a special edition collecting stories from the Robert Altman film Short Cuts. It is a truly amazing film, with a stellar cast and it perfectly captures the spirit and tone of Carver. A couple of the stories found in the film show up in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
I have no idea why it has taken me 20-plus years to revisit Carver, but I am back on board now and will read the rest of his work.
“A man can go along
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obeying all the rules and then it don’t matter a damn anymore.” “and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.”
Carver writes spare, slices of American life. Stories of love, booze, pain, infidelity and death. These tales take place, in small towns, trailer parks and on camping trips. There is just enough dry wit, to keep it keep the bleakness at bay.
I first discovered Carver, while reading Short Cuts: Selected Stories, which was a special edition collecting stories from the Robert Altman film Short Cuts. It is a truly amazing film, with a stellar cast and it perfectly captures the spirit and tone of Carver. A couple of the stories found in the film show up in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
I have no idea why it has taken me 20-plus years to revisit Carver, but I am back on board now and will read the rest of his work.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
Short and sweet, some stories take only a few pages. They're not all hits, but a goodie is never more than a few turns away. The briefest, Popular Mechanics, is one of the best, but Tell The Women We're Going is the stand-out, spine-tingling highlight.
LibraryThing member antao
Answer: In other words, everything else: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" by Raymond Carver, Gordon Lish “I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”
in
Imagine the following sentence: “By 8 AM I wake up to go to the bathroom.”
Now imagine the following edited sentence: “By 8 AM I wake up and go to the bathroom to sit on what has to be the unlikeliest throne in Lisbon.”
Which one is better? Uhm...Food for thought...
If you're into this kind of stuff, read on.
in
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“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver, Gordon LishImagine the following sentence: “By 8 AM I wake up to go to the bathroom.”
Now imagine the following edited sentence: “By 8 AM I wake up and go to the bathroom to sit on what has to be the unlikeliest throne in Lisbon.”
Which one is better? Uhm...Food for thought...
If you're into this kind of stuff, read on.
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LibraryThing member banjo123
Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon and lived mostly in Port Angeles, Washington, so this collection of short stories has a Pacific Northwest flavor. The stories are short and spare, the settings gritty, and the characters difficult. The focus is on romantic relationships that don’t completely
Here is a passage from “Gazebo,” in which Holly and Duane, managers of a small motel, confront Duane’s infidelity.
Drinking’s funny. When I look back on it, all of our important decisions have been figured out when we were drinking. Even when we talked about having to cut back on our drinking, we’d be sitting at the kitchen table or out at the picnic table with a six-pack or whiskey. When we made up our minds to move down here and take this job as managers, we sat up a couple of nights drinking while we weighed the pros and the cons.
A lot of the stories make you feel just plain icky, as in “So Much Water, So Close to Home” in which a group of men on a fishing trip come across the dead body of a murdered woman at the beginning of the trip, and wait until the end of the trip to report it, rather than interrupt the trip. But something about Carver’s writing, and his non-judgmental view makes the stories more than just a glimpse of the odd and disturbing. They really raise the question of what it means to be human in relationship to other humans. .
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work. Alcohol is a major factor. Here is a passage from “Gazebo,” in which Holly and Duane, managers of a small motel, confront Duane’s infidelity.
Drinking’s funny. When I look back on it, all of our important decisions have been figured out when we were drinking. Even when we talked about having to cut back on our drinking, we’d be sitting at the kitchen table or out at the picnic table with a six-pack or whiskey. When we made up our minds to move down here and take this job as managers, we sat up a couple of nights drinking while we weighed the pros and the cons.
A lot of the stories make you feel just plain icky, as in “So Much Water, So Close to Home” in which a group of men on a fishing trip come across the dead body of a murdered woman at the beginning of the trip, and wait until the end of the trip to report it, rather than interrupt the trip. But something about Carver’s writing, and his non-judgmental view makes the stories more than just a glimpse of the odd and disturbing. They really raise the question of what it means to be human in relationship to other humans. .
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LibraryThing member stipe168
Known for his anguished perusal of every word in his stories, Raymond Carver delivers an incredible collection here. There is an economy to these contemporary stories about cheating spouses and lost love affairs. Many short story writers try to include a whole world in as few words as they can -
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Carver just gives you a picture and lets you muse over it yourself. Show Less
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
These are fairly short stories, easy quick reads. However, there's really not much depth to anything outside of emotion, primarily the emotions of confusion and discontent. Simply, these are slices of life, straightforward and easy to understand surface-wise. There is some beauty to be seen in the
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grace and the simplicity with which Carver writes, but the stories get repetitive by the end, even with such a short book. Show Less
LibraryThing member rossryanross
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is an amazing collection of stories, with vivid, monumentally flawed characters--drunks, murderers, junkies, and everything else from the socially stigmatized end of the spectrum. Carver creates some great reads and leaves you wanting more.
LibraryThing member aoxford
Carver's minimalist writing does not build up characters but breaks them down and nearly destroys them. He captures people at their most vulnerable and illustrates the power a chaotic moment can have on an otherwise stable person. The unexpected is all that should be expected in his often morose
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America as it is the unexpected which seems to matter most. Show Less
LibraryThing member moonimal
Hmm ... I'm a lover of short stories, but didn't get the praise/hype/awards that this guy has won. The fiction is very sparse, and definitely has a very personal flair - mostly through subject matter, and the non-linear progression of the conversations. I think this qualifies as voice, but the
I'll re-read this in a year or so, to see if I missed something.
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stories weren't that compelling to me.I'll re-read this in a year or so, to see if I missed something.
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LibraryThing member daddyofattyo
Having had very high expectations via reputation etc. I must say I was a tad underwhelmed. By all means, a very good writer, and some of the stories were great, but others - I'd like to say 'WTF'? but will instead say were simply over my little head. I don't understand a story that seems to have no
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beginning and no end, not even a seed of an idea to ponder - it's as if you found a loose page from a book that doesn't exactly leave you with any desire to go and hunt down that book right away. I have another book of his stories - [Where I'm Calling From] and I since that one is an anthology of his best, I have certainly not taken it off of my TBR list. Show Less
LibraryThing member vivaval
Reading these stories made me feel hopeless and alone.
LibraryThing member satyridae
Terse. Spare. Amazing.
Carver's vision was singular and pure. His words fall like rain, inevitable and clear.
Carver's vision was singular and pure. His words fall like rain, inevitable and clear.
LibraryThing member StevenJohnTait
Update:
I recommend everyone to watch the film Short Cuts by Robert Altman. This breathed a new life into these stories for me, allowing me to just enjoy them for what they are rather than trying to pry into them for deeper meaning.
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I've given this three stars only because I
I enjoyed reading this. It was only when a teacher of mine brought it up that I realised how similar to Hemingway Carver's writing style is.
My favourite Carver story is probably Chef's House as read on The NewYorker Podcast. In written form I like the one where the guy's wife works as a waitress in some diner - can't remember the name.
I recommend everyone to watch the film Short Cuts by Robert Altman. This breathed a new life into these stories for me, allowing me to just enjoy them for what they are rather than trying to pry into them for deeper meaning.
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I've given this three stars only because I
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know It's really good and probably deserves more, but I have to be honest, and I don't think I have the mental capacity to really appreciate it. I feel like there's something under the stories that I can't reach. I've heard that his work has biblical themes. I'd really like someone to take me by the hand and lead me through his writing. I enjoyed reading this. It was only when a teacher of mine brought it up that I realised how similar to Hemingway Carver's writing style is.
My favourite Carver story is probably Chef's House as read on The NewYorker Podcast. In written form I like the one where the guy's wife works as a waitress in some diner - can't remember the name.
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LibraryThing member krizia_lazaro
This was okay. I usually love short story collections but this one did not really leave its mark on me. Most of the time I do not understand what's happening. There are great stories in this collection but over-all it was just okay.
LibraryThing member blanderson
Some great stories. Are few are overly pared down and seem to go for effect rather than story. Still a brilliant collection.
LibraryThing member misirlou
Raymond Carver's America is bleak. While Sherwood Anderson celebrates the inherent flaws in the individual, Carver works to accept the fact that some personality flaws can never be fixed.
In this collection of his short stories, he relies on implication. Much in the way Hemingway likened his
Even in a story like "Tell the Women We're Going" where the action (a seemingly unprompted double homicide) is unbelievable, the stories work because the characters are difficult not to believe. In the writing world, where characters are either too perfect or too intentionally eclectic, Carver creates characters whose flaws are mundane. The flaws are only shared with the reader because there's nothing the characters can do to change themselves-- their resignation is what gets you.
Without Carver's keen eye for language, these stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting. In "I could see the smallest things" Carver pays special attention to having the narrator of the story see nothing clearly. Every statement she makes after she leaves the comfort of her house concerns her inability to see what's going on.
As a metaphor, none of the characters in these stories can see what's going on. Either they choose to ignore the world, they're too caught up on themselves, or they see their mistakes but they take no actions to correct them.
Despite the melancholy tone of the book, each story is capable of grabbing your attention and keeping hold of it until the last sentence. This isn't the best book to pick up if you're looking for something to cheer you up, but if you're looking for some easy-to-read, incredible short stories this is the book for you.
In this collection of his short stories, he relies on implication. Much in the way Hemingway likened his
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stories to icebergs (both are mostly hidden beneath the surface, leaving the viewer to piece together the real size of things based off of what they can see), Carver relies on an economy of language which makes his characters sadder and more pathetic as he asks the reader to imagine these people for themselves. This works because he presents believable characters. Even in a story like "Tell the Women We're Going" where the action (a seemingly unprompted double homicide) is unbelievable, the stories work because the characters are difficult not to believe. In the writing world, where characters are either too perfect or too intentionally eclectic, Carver creates characters whose flaws are mundane. The flaws are only shared with the reader because there's nothing the characters can do to change themselves-- their resignation is what gets you.
Without Carver's keen eye for language, these stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting. In "I could see the smallest things" Carver pays special attention to having the narrator of the story see nothing clearly. Every statement she makes after she leaves the comfort of her house concerns her inability to see what's going on.
As a metaphor, none of the characters in these stories can see what's going on. Either they choose to ignore the world, they're too caught up on themselves, or they see their mistakes but they take no actions to correct them.
Despite the melancholy tone of the book, each story is capable of grabbing your attention and keeping hold of it until the last sentence. This isn't the best book to pick up if you're looking for something to cheer you up, but if you're looking for some easy-to-read, incredible short stories this is the book for you.
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LibraryThing member megantron
better review pending but some quick thoughts:
-I know Carver was an alcoholic, but he was literally incapable of writing a story that doesn't mention booze
-incredibly minimal but emotional writing. it's incredible how carver can use so few words to say so much.
-I don't care how involved Gordon
favorites: "What We Talk about when we talk about love" (natch), "Everything Stuck to Him"
-I know Carver was an alcoholic, but he was literally incapable of writing a story that doesn't mention booze
-incredibly minimal but emotional writing. it's incredible how carver can use so few words to say so much.
-I don't care how involved Gordon
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Lish was involved, the final product is fantastic favorites: "What We Talk about when we talk about love" (natch), "Everything Stuck to Him"
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LibraryThing member b.masonjudy
I reread this collection in conjunction with reading the base text, Beginners. In most cases the stories have been edited by almost half and the large majority are equally impressive, though in much different ways. I'd have to say that "The Bath" is the story in this collection that lost the most
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from the intense editing of Gordon Lish. In Beginners this story really plumbs the depths of the emotional struggle of the couple after the death of their son and the ending demonstrates a moving interaction between strangers who are both recognizing their humanity midst true tragedy. The WWTA version just ends on a bleak and somewhat "thriller-ish" note that was extremely reductive. At any rate that's an anomaly, I'd recommend reading this in tandem with Beginners or just read it if you want to read some damn good fiction. Show Less
LibraryThing member melrailey
Raymond Carver is a master storyteller. He writes these super short stories that are packed with intrigue and feelings. In less time that you can imagine, Carver made me connect with his characters and then he always had these twists that made me read it again just to wrap my head around what
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happened. The title story, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, is one of the best short stories I've read. This collection of stories made a great last read of the night each night before I went to bed. Show Less
LibraryThing member jostie13
I'm ready to credit Raymond Carver's editor with his success as a short-story writer.
LibraryThing member sriddell
A wonderful collection of short stories!
Each story a stand-alone slice of life. Most of the books are about love, but also just being human. The author gets a lot done with each word - nothing extra and nothing missing.
I listened to the audio, which was wonderful.
Each story a stand-alone slice of life. Most of the books are about love, but also just being human. The author gets a lot done with each word - nothing extra and nothing missing.
I listened to the audio, which was wonderful.
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1981
Physical description
176 p.; 8.04 inches
ISBN
0679723056 / 9780679723059