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riccitelliii's review against another edition
5.0
una volta mi hanno detto che se un libro ti fa venire dei dubbi è un bel libro; ed allora questo è un libro straordinario
dwhite1174's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
_ottavia_'s review against another edition
1.0
Carver è famosissimo ed è impossibile leggere qualsiasi cosa di suo senza avere delle altissime aspettative. Purtroppo ho capito abbastanza presto, dopo alcune pagine, che non mi sarebbe piaciuto. Ne riconosco la bravura tecnica, ma il tono asettico e l'umanità ritratta semplicemente non fanno per me: in realtà, in effetti, non ho neanche finito il libro. Avevo voglia di leggere altro, qualcosa che non mi rendesse disperata per il genere umano dopo due righe.
dilan11's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have certainly read the title story in anthologies and I believe I may have read the entire book back in the 80s when it came out. I certainly didn't like it, not at all but I do recognize that Carver has a unique talent and certainly has been an influence on many writers over the last half century. I admire how his style accords with his material - raw, minimal, masculine. But all that drinking, that violence toward women, that despair was way too much for me. Also, the violent men, the accommodating women were just a bit too cliched for me much of the time. My favorite story was "After the Denim." That male character was still angry but he was older and I felt his sorrow and the woman's love for him in a way I didn't in many of the other stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence
sxndaze's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
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.
for a period of about two years, i was obsessed with the movie stuck in love. it references the titular story and quotes the ending lines at the end of the film and from that moment, i had wanted to read this collection.
this collection is a lot. short stories still mystify me, and i’m working on my understanding of them. i enjoyed a few of them and felt like i glazed through the rest, but the title story really spoke to me. is it because i tried more? who knows. but im glad i read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Death
junyan's review against another edition
1.0
Still can’t appreciate the beauty of American literature
sidneyterano's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I love the way Carver ends a story.
“Then he set to work — stitch after stitch — making believe he was waving like the man on the keel.”
“He started the car and put it into reverse. It was hard managing until he put the ashtray down.”
“I left soon after. But today I was thinking of that place, of Crescent City, and of how I was trying out a new life there with my wife, and how, in the barber's chair that morning, I had made up my mind to go. I was thinking today about the calm I felt when I closed my eyes and let the barber's fingers move through my hair, the sweetness of those fingers, the hair already starting to grow.”
“But he stays by the window, remembering. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and leagued until the tears had come, while everything else — the cold and where he’d go in it — was outside, for a while anyway.”
“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.”
“He said, ‘I just want to say one more thing.’ But then he could not think what it could possibly be.”
“Then he set to work — stitch after stitch — making believe he was waving like the man on the keel.”
“He started the car and put it into reverse. It was hard managing until he put the ashtray down.”
“I left soon after. But today I was thinking of that place, of Crescent City, and of how I was trying out a new life there with my wife, and how, in the barber's chair that morning, I had made up my mind to go. I was thinking today about the calm I felt when I closed my eyes and let the barber's fingers move through my hair, the sweetness of those fingers, the hair already starting to grow.”
“But he stays by the window, remembering. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and leagued until the tears had come, while everything else — the cold and where he’d go in it — was outside, for a while anyway.”
“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.”
“He said, ‘I just want to say one more thing.’ But then he could not think what it could possibly be.”
andriawrites's review
4.0
Carver's honest and harrowing minimalist short stories were both draining and moving (in good, messed-up kind of way.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love includes 17 short stories, each one more different and more alike than the next. Carver weaves tales of desperation, love, loneliness, and disappointment, turning them into cold meditations on what love and relationships mean in a post-modern America. Like most short story collections, this one reads pretty quickly, but that does not, in any way, undermine the content of the stories. Each one felt like a voyeuristic glimpse into the broken or almost broken lives of people who you may actually know, now or someday. All in all, a great exploration of human nature, in all its faults and triumphs.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love includes 17 short stories, each one more different and more alike than the next. Carver weaves tales of desperation, love, loneliness, and disappointment, turning them into cold meditations on what love and relationships mean in a post-modern America. Like most short story collections, this one reads pretty quickly, but that does not, in any way, undermine the content of the stories. Each one felt like a voyeuristic glimpse into the broken or almost broken lives of people who you may actually know, now or someday. All in all, a great exploration of human nature, in all its faults and triumphs.
tarrowood's review against another edition
5.0
Carver is simply as real as it gets. He tells stories that are not theoretical, but exist within the spaces between us and other people. What We Mean When We Talk About Love sounds, by its title, like an ode to how we love; instead it is about the realities of love and how it exists from day to day