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1.94k reviews for:
What We Talk about When We Talk about Love / Beginners (A Vintage Short)
Raymond Carver
3.83 AVERAGE
1.94k reviews for:
What We Talk about When We Talk about Love / Beginners (A Vintage Short)
Raymond Carver
3.83 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Stark, short stories. One features a twist ending I never saw coming.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
One of my favorite collections of short stories. While some may find the title confusing, I find it to be appropriate. While most aren't about romantic love, love as a a concept runs throughout. Whether it be a love of your wife, or the love of your flesh, I continue to pick this up over and over again.
"In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy one another’s company. She’s easy to be with."
Lovely way to distinguish layers here.
Lovely way to distinguish layers here.
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
These stories were not really what I expected. Rather than ruminations on love and what it means to love someone, they were more focused on the darker, dangerous, and impulsive side of humanity. And of what happens when love doesn't work out or gets twisted. Not for me overall, though I enjoyed Why Don't You Dance and the titular story.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Once again, a marvellous collection of short stories. This man can write dialogue, damn.
“When we had big plans and hopes? You remember?”
.
This is a collection or short stories, or rather of short episodes, glimpses of the violent instances when something apparently 'small' happens and derails entire lives. I admit, I was a bit naive and too influenced by the cover and title and expected something more optimistic, but nothing came. Instead, Carver shows us the nasty side of life, full of regrets, partners cheating, accidents, abuse and brutality.
.
There are many possible influences we can see in Carver’s writings - you can almost see him as a student of Hemingway’s, both in his tendency of being almost always intoxicated and in his style, but essentially he wrote about the, often violent domestic abuse that both women and men resort to and the general state of unrest in America.
.
One thing I really appreciate is the editing work Gordon Lish has done, which you can see on slide 2. Even though the story itself comes from Carver undisputedly, this is a very good example how much editing matters, as often it makes the message more concise and perhaps it even makes it sound better.
.
This is a collection or short stories, or rather of short episodes, glimpses of the violent instances when something apparently 'small' happens and derails entire lives. I admit, I was a bit naive and too influenced by the cover and title and expected something more optimistic, but nothing came. Instead, Carver shows us the nasty side of life, full of regrets, partners cheating, accidents, abuse and brutality.
.
There are many possible influences we can see in Carver’s writings - you can almost see him as a student of Hemingway’s, both in his tendency of being almost always intoxicated and in his style, but essentially he wrote about the, often violent domestic abuse that both women and men resort to and the general state of unrest in America.
.
One thing I really appreciate is the editing work Gordon Lish has done, which you can see on slide 2. Even though the story itself comes from Carver undisputedly, this is a very good example how much editing matters, as often it makes the message more concise and perhaps it even makes it sound better.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
i read this because i saw it recommended as a book to read during the post-holiday winter months and i must say i agree. a collection of 17 short stories, some as short as 3 pages long, dealing with themes of love (duh), loss, infidelity, and more. my favorite ones were the titular story (what we talk about when we talk about love), why don’t you dance?, and so much water so close to home.
these stories are like if you were dropped in the middle of a scene and then promptly picked up and moved to the next. this, i think, contributed to the way carver’s writing felt almost sparse, with the most important things left unsaid. like they were said before or after you left each scene.
these stories are like if you were dropped in the middle of a scene and then promptly picked up and moved to the next. this, i think, contributed to the way carver’s writing felt almost sparse, with the most important things left unsaid. like they were said before or after you left each scene.
i don’t think I was the target audience for this book at all. simply didn’t get it at all. it had been on my TBR list for a while and I’m glad I read it but I’m sorry nope I don’t see any hype - 2