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sidneyterano's review
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 against another edition
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
robfarren's review against another edition
5.0
There's this one story in here called "Tell The Women We're Going" that'll make you shiver.
stephaniexpink's review against another edition
4.0
gritty and challenging. this is the first time I’ve experienced Carver’s writing and I enjoyed the prose. I can see how some people would not enjoy it, but I found the exploration of dysfunctional relationships to be done in such a raw and realistic way
robertaborgia01's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
livbrvk's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
stinky_little_guy's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25