Reviews - What We Talk about When We Talk about Love / Beginners (A Vintage Short)

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1.96k reviews for:

What We Talk about When We Talk about Love / Beginners (A Vintage Short)

I like the vignettes of very different experiences of “love” or “unlove”. Carver shows us that they have range when it comes to writing styles. The dialogue and characters feel different. Each story has its own tempo and flavor; and being thrown in the middle of it makes me want more from some of these stories.

Overall, I’ve been anticipating reading this. I hope that some of these stories can find their audience.

jsmonteiro's review against another edition

4.0

3.5

kaisadaughterofthevoid's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

reading_at_rest's review against another edition

2.0

I don't read short stories often anymore. I thought I was really going to love this collection based on where I heard about it from, but I just really couldn't get into it. One of the stories did make me feel less alone about some upsetting feelings about something so that was a nice bonus, but I didn't really have any favorite stories in the book.

yisus98's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

cwunshine's review against another edition

4.0

I went into this collection knowing only that “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” was the story Keaton's character in Birdman was adapting for broadway. As someone who doesn’t usually reach for short stories I’ll admit it was a bit out of my comfort zone but I’m really glad I gave it a shot. Raymond Carver manages to make me both horribly upset and wonderfully endeared by humanity. A poignant meditation on love and violence.