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A review by klarasomogyi
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
For a book that is supposed to be about love, this made me feel quite sad, actually. There were some nice and intriguing stories that I liked for various reasons, but the collection overall didn’t capture the essence of love, as I hoped it would.
It did shine light on the fact that love has so many forms and it does not always entail something good, but I think if the story collection went with another title, it wouldn’t be so limited in its options - this way it was.
Anyways, Raymond Carver writes beautiful prose and some of the novellas are crafted almost artistically. My personal favourites were: ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ ‘The Bath’ and ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’.
However, the collection left me feeling dissatisfied and wanting more complexity.
It did shine light on the fact that love has so many forms and it does not always entail something good, but I think if the story collection went with another title, it wouldn’t be so limited in its options - this way it was.
Anyways, Raymond Carver writes beautiful prose and some of the novellas are crafted almost artistically. My personal favourites were: ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ ‘The Bath’ and ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’.
However, the collection left me feeling dissatisfied and wanting more complexity.