What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Raymond Carver (Vintage Classics)

This is a great collection of short stories from Carver. They have his trademark sparse style and sense of realism and the characters are detailed and believable. The stories are simple but touch on serious and universal themes, developed without excessive prose and with strong dialogue. There are often some oddities that give the stories nice specificity and the sense of place in all of them is excellent. And the characters’ personality quirks make them stick in your mind long after you’ve put the book down.

This is one of those books and one of those American writers like Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald that I never read at the time. Not old enough; not interested or more likely, not mature enough to appreciate them. So as a consequence American culture, American mores and in particular a wide range of post-war American social and economic policies with the prime purpose I suspect of reinforcing the belief that individuals are responsible for their own destiny have rather passed me by. And I am not now interested in catching-up. It’s a series of [17] short stories. Can’t remember the last collection of short stories I read; was it Olive Kitteridge [Elizabeth Strout]? . . . [which I adored], so I am not against fiction in this format. All the reviewers refer to his pared-down writing style as if it is to be admired. One reviewer refers to the similarities between Carver and the singer/actor and songwriter, Tom Waites. Not a Tom Waites fan. They seem to have booze in common. So anyway, this is a novel comprising of bleak vignettes about men mostly blue collar, mostly drunks, mostly in broken or almost broken marriages in the American Mid-west in the sixties. It is an attempt I think to blend the particular and the universal, moving away from a straight narrative retelling in search of a larger truth. As I said it is very lean, which I do quite like although this is too big a dose for me: I think writing a short story well is pretty difficult.

Raymond Carver is a writer I like. He writes about the human condition wonderfully. If you like your fiction more action based, you might not enjoy his work—you may find it dull.

This slim paperback doesn’t look particularly impressive at first glance but it has had a significant influence on generations of writers since its publication in 1981 while also securing Carver a place in American literature. There is much to admire here particularly the lean, pared-to-the-bone prose that reduces storytelling to the barest number of words. This is more difficult than is commonly believed and every aspiring writer can learn something from Carver’s minimalist text. This simplicity of style disguises a complexity of meaning and grasping the message behind these stories is trickier than you might expect. Most left me with that baffled feeling you get when you fail to understand the punchline of a joke and I suspect that Carver does this on purpose to force the reader to think through what they’ve just read. There are a couple of exceptions to this formula where the shock-ending payoff really hits home and for me these are the standouts. Overall be prepared for a quick easy read followed by some long hard work trying to make sense of what just happened.

Fascinating, well written stories about complex relationships. Challenging and heart rending some of them.

I enjoyed almost all of these stories, both the subject matter and Carver’s writing style. For a similar and excellent collection of American short fiction from the same period (early 1980s), I would recommend Liars in Love by Yates.

Arrived quickly & in good condition

This book of short stories was recommended to me as a good example of minimalism. The stories are short and sharp as might be expected when considering that Raymond Carver is a writer known for his succinct text. I enjoyed the stories even though they are miserable and gloomy. The book has ecouraged me to read more about Carver himself.

Amazing short stories

I didn't like the book that much at the beginning, maybe because I had great expectations, but I kept on reading and I fell in love with Carver's writing, with his stories and the characters in the book.

Não restam duvidam de que Raymond Carver é um escritor necessário — mesmo não sendo o tão apregoado minimalista que dizem ser. Porém, quando adquiri Beginners e What do we talk about when we talk about Love (original e mutilação), estava muito mais interessado na sua luta — não com as palavras, mas com seu editor, mistura de copidesque estilista e açougueiro, Gordon Lish, que, sem cerimônias e escrúpulos, transfigurou, por exemplo, o excelente conto A small, good thing, de 26 páginas, num resíduo de apenas 9, com o título The bath. Um massacre, felizmente reparado. carlos loria

Un muy buen libro que es exitoso en explorar la temática cotidiana de la que muchos autores ya no hablan. Asimismo, tiene una reflexión acerca de la naturaleza subjetiva del amor nunca antes vista.

カーヴァーが多くの現代アメリカ作家に少なくない影響を与えた人だと、知識では知っていました。 でも、同じ作者の別な作品の邦訳を以前読んだ時は、悪くはないし、好きなんだけど、何がそれほど素晴らしいのかよく分からなかったというのが正直な感想でした。 しかしこの原著を読んで納得。簡潔な文章で、難しい単語もないのに、非常に洗練された印象を受けました。 本書は「愛」を主題にした短編集です。 159ページの中に17話。ひとつの話は数ページから、長くても数十ページ。多くがワンシーンのみで、登場人物も数名です。 彼らの日常の一こまを切り取って、必要最小限を簡潔に描写しているだけなのですが、それがかえってこちらの想像力を刺激する感じです。 登場人物の心情や背景を、読み手が創り上げることができる、とでも言いましょうか。 表題作は二組の夫婦がお酒を飲みながら愛についての様々なエピソードを披露する話。 この話と、第一話Why Don't You Dance?（なんだかやけくそになった中年男性が自宅の家具をガレージセールしてしまう話）が個人的には気に入りました。 英文は難しくないです。 洋書にいまいち自信のない人でも、チャレンジする価値のある本だと思います。