“Why don’t you dance?” is a story where at a yard sale, a teenage couple dances to a record the man plays.

“Viewfinder” tells of a man without a hand who sells photos of people’s houses to the occupants. He visits a man whose family has just left him.

“Mr Coffee and Mr Fixit” shows a man reflecting on how his wife left him and the kind of man she left him for.

“Gazebo” is about a couple who manage a motel and are at the end of their rope after the man has an affair with the Mexican maid.

“I could see the smallest things” features a sleepless woman having a conversation with her next-door neighbor who was once good friends with her husband.

“Sacks” is when a man visits his son and explains the circumstances of his adultery that led to the divorce.

“The Bath” is the first version of “A Small Good Thing”.

“Tell the women we’re going” has Jerry and his pal pick up a couple of girls, but later Jerry kills them both for no apparent reason.

“After the Denim” shows an old couple going to play bingo, getting angry when a longhaired couple takes their regular seats, and the old woman being ill.

“So much water so close to home” tells of three men on a fishing trip who find a girl’s body in the river and decide to report it after they finish fishing.

“The third thing that killed my father off” has Dummy with a pond of bass allowing a man and his son to fish once but getting mad at them anyway.

“A serious talk” shows a man visiting his separated wife and almost exploding into violence before she throws him out.

“The calm” has a man in a barbershop telling a story about not killing his deer but wounding it, leading to a dispute with other customers.

“Popular mechanics” shows a couple arguing with their baby in the way.

“Everything stuck to him” is about a very young couple whose baby is crying all night and they fight about whether the man can go duck hunting before making up.

“What we talk about when we talk about love” has two couples out for an evening and Mel, a doctor, sharing his thoughts on love.

“One more thing” shows a man getting into a long argument with his daughter and being thrown out by his wife when she gets home.

This book has been on my list for over five years (!).

So, I was truly thrilled when I found it on Hoopla.

To me, it was very much akin to listening to Andy Rooney reading the grumblings of an old man.

I’ve read that this is a heavily edited collection and many people prefer the longer versions.

However, I suspect that Raymond Carver will go next to George Saunders on my shelf of authors that I just don’t seem to understand.

I can only give it 2 stars.

Perhaps with more time and a different perspective, I might come to appreciate Carver’s work better.

But for now, it just doesn’t click with me.

I’ll continue to explore other books and authors in the hope of finding those that truly resonate with me.

Maybe one day, I’ll look back at this review and realize that I was too quick to judge.

But until then, 2 stars it is.

Carver's stories are, in general, rather short.

At first glance, this might seem off-putting to some individuals.

However, as one delves into reading his works, it becomes evident that there is not a single superfluous word.

Every word is precisely where it needs to be, and not a single sentence can be disregarded or overlooked.

His stories are truly passionate and nuanced pieces of art.

The selection at hand contains just the right amount of his stories to both excite the reader and leave them with a voracious appetite for more.

It's as if Carver has mastered the art of brevity, packing a powerful punch within the limited space of his short stories.

Each story is a gem, waiting to be discovered and savored by those willing to give them a chance.

Despite their short length, they have the ability to touch the reader's heart and make them think deeply about the human condition.

3.5 in reality.

“Well, then I kissed her. I tilted her head back over the sofa cushion and kissed her, and I can still feel her tongue moving restlessly, trying to get inside my mouth. Do you understand what I'm saying? One can live by following all the rules, and then one fine day, suddenly, nothing matters a damn. Your good luck runs out, you know?”

Let's assume we have gone out for a hunt. Let's assume we are going to hunt a lion. But is the lion really there where we are wandering? How will we know that it is there? Just like the last time, based on the probability of this fictional hunt, we assume that a little while ago we heard its roar or saw its footprints on the soft ground. We are searching for it based on that sound or that sight. A hut in the distance seems to have moved slightly. Is it a lion? A shadow seems to have passed in front of our eyes in surprise. Is it a lion? Each of our nerves is completely tense. Our hearts have risen to our throats. Each of us can clearly hear the pounding in our chests. Each of us is thinking that there is no more delay, maybe at any moment this time we will meet it.

And if we are wandering around in search of love in just this way... then what? Will we find any part of its form? Will we find any defined concept?

Actually, to understand love, it is not necessary to rack one's brains. It can be touched by sitting quietly in a corner of the heart like a small bird.

Still, the question remains... The question that has come down through many ages is, "Friend, who do you love?"

These various levels of intangible love, whether slight or intense, whether a stream or a confluence of streams, all of these have been included in the book "What We Talk about When We Talk About Love" by Raymond Carver.

Maybe he is trying to understand himself in this way...

"All this, all of this love we're talking about, it would just be a memory. Maybe not even a memory. Am I wrong? Am I way off base? Because I want you to set me straight if you think I'm wrong. I want to know. I mean, I don't know anything, and I'm the first one to admit it."

It can be said with certainty that we have never before come face to face with such amazing storytelling.

Imagine that you have suddenly fallen into the story of a character's afternoon or night.

Maybe you have fallen into the story of a traveler sitting next to you on a distant train, but you have to get off before the story ends because you have reached your desired destination. The possibility of seeing it a second time in life is like finding a specific grain of sand separated at a child's grave. In the midst of those unforgettable moments of suddenly coming face to face, the author will try to show you the true nature of love in the lives of the characters.

If we consider the stories separately, it is difficult to follow the flow of the story. Because you will not find the depth of these stories.

But from the point of view of the essence or the underlying substance of the stories, they are one. The subtones have been created with one main tone at the center. The song is being created in a magical way based on one raga.

It is a bit like Haruki Murakami's "Men without Women" book.

Carver's writing is not verbose.

Rather, he forces us to think again about our intangible experiences in a minimalist way.

"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."

In this book, the abstract feeling called "love" is not just human-human love, but in different forms from different perspectives, and he has presented its nature through various stories.

For example, it could be love for one's own house, a mother's love for her son, love for a lost childhood, love for a pet, or love for a car like in Subodh Ghosh's "Inanimate" story...

Sometimes the opposite of love, separation, the rush of love, doubt, and distance will also be seen as if we are meeting a familiar person in an unknown city.

Sometimes it will seem like Fariduddin Attar's...

"The people of this earth are like the three Prajapatis who fly in front of the fire.

The first Prajapati goes very close to the fire. And says, I know what love is.

The second Prajapati touches the tip of the fire with his wing. Then he says, I know how the fire of love burns.

The third Prajapati jumps into the fire and disappears. He doesn't say anything more. Although only he knows what true love is."

Not only the subject matter, but also a journey through the different stages of love can be seen.

All in all, I think,

It's been a strange ride

If we try to see the stories separately, the assessment will be average.

That is, just as we cannot judge the beauty of an elephant by looking only at its trunk or teeth or ears, in the same way, we cannot evaluate the stories of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" separately. We have to look at the whole elephant.

"In the country where one behaves, the river can be crossed with ease."

In this context, I would like to say one thing.

One of the greatest movies of all time... Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Birdman or: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" was actually made following the storyline of Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".

Finally, I would like to say that It's not everyone's cup of tea. If we think of the book as being filled with passionate emotions just by looking at its name, we will be making a big mistake. I would only recommend this book to those who want to explore the experimental work of a serious observer.

Carver's short stories offer concise yet profound insights into the lives of characters who find themselves ensnared in a complex and often bewildering web of relationships and events.

He skillfully employs symbolism to enhance the story's theme, with much happening beneath the surface. His symbolic elements are carefully constructed and reliable, serving to clarify rather than obscure the meaning.

Carver's works span a wide range of themes and styles, from the surrealism in "Viewfinder" and "Why don't you dance?" to the careful omissions in "Tell the women we're going," the tightly controlled pessimism in "The Bath," the apparent morbidity in "Popular mechanics," the dysfunctionality of life in "I can see the smallest things," and the elusiveness of love in "What we talk about when we talk about love."

By delving into themes such as alcoholism, lack of communication, conflict, rejection, acceptance, violence, displacement, ambiguity, disappointments, hard truths, and small glimmers of hope in ordinary lives, he vividly portrays the detritus of contemporary life and postmodern angst.

Using spare prose, Carver provides the reader with a peek into the tragic waste of his characters' lives, achieving their power through ambiguity. The simple exterior of his stories masks great depths, intermingled with working-class humor and emotional menace, punctuated by episodes of physical violence, alcohol, and cigarettes, and filled with perplexing yet captivating occurrences.

In his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 1986, Carver stated: “…I believe in the efficacy of the concrete word, be it noun or verb, as opposed to the abstract or arbitrary or slippery word…. I tried to steer away from…stories where the words seemed to slide into one another and blur the meaning.”

His stories challenge the boundaries of convention, leaving their purpose for the reader to discover rather than presenting it explicitly.

I'm having a week, or perhaps it's a month, or maybe even a year, or dare I say a lifetime, where I can only finish books that are 150 pages long and it STILL takes me an excessive amount of time.

It's quite frustrating really. I used to be able to breeze through longer books with ease, but now it seems like even the shortest of reads is a challenge.

I wonder what has happened to me. Have I lost my focus? Am I too easily distracted?

I hope this phase passes soon and I can get back to enjoying longer and more complex books without feeling like it's a Herculean task.

For now, I'll just have to keep plodding along with my 150-page books and hope that eventually, my reading speed and ability will improve.

WHAT HAVE I BECOME.

Critical praise for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver:

Nearly 200 years ago, Wordsworth and Coleridge aimed to write in ‘the language really used by men,’ yet neither fully achieved it. In this collection, Raymond Carver has, and it's terrifying, according to Robert Houston of The Nation. Michael Wood of The New York Times Book Review lauds Carver for inventing a country of his own, like the real world as Wordsworth described. Tim O’Brien calls the collection splendid, with a wonderful cumulative effect. J.D. Reed of Time says Carver not only enchants but convinces.

However, I'm not convinced. I find these stories unenchanting and unconvincing. I've read about how Carver's editor, Gordon Lish, took a harsh editorial approach, cutting the stories to the bone and even rewriting some. This may be the reason they hold no appeal for me. I don't find the characters interesting and don't feel invested in them. It seems the writer isn't invested either, perhaps due to Lish's influence and the resulting "minimalist" style.

It reminds me of the TV series Dragnet, where Sgt. Joe Friday would only want the facts. I always preferred the back story. After being disappointed with Carver, I picked up an old paperback of short stories by Truman Capote. The first story, Master Misery, hooked me. Capote is emotionally invested in his characters and can write lyrical prose while telling a good story. I'm looking forward to reading the other stories in the collection and predict I'll like them much better than Carver's.

I had read many of the stories in other anthologies, but Raymond Carver is always read and reread. I think the most important thing that Americans have contributed to literature is this kind of stories.

Generally, the stories that take place in the south of America, crazy drinking men, marriages on the verge of breaking up, children who cannot be shared, and details of strange moments...

Carver is always one of us ^.^

I liked the title - and of course the cover - of the old edition much more: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The current title can't even come close to it.

There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it, is what I'd like to know. I wish someone could tell me.

This powerful opening sets the tone for the exploration of love and its mysteries in Raymond Carver's work. The collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" consists of seventeen short stories that focus on ordinary people. These are the kind of people we meet every day, going about their lives in places like the road, barber shop, bakery, or hospital.

The writing style, much like that of Ernest Hemingway, is straightforward, clear, precise, and unsentimental. Carver shows that simplicity and brevity can be powerful in literature. The first three stories introduce us to three different men dealing with their lonesomeness and desiring to reconnect with life in various ways.

We get a peek into the mismanaged jobs and love affairs of a couple, learn about love within families and friendships, and wait with parents for their son to wake from a coma. We also see families and friendships that are falling apart or have already fallen apart. The stories convey a lot with spare text, leaving much unsaid but still speaking volumes.

In the title story, two couples attempt to define love, but the more they talk, the more they struggle as words fail them. Carver's characters try to express their feelings, which are mostly of emptiness. This collection presents a world filled with unfulfilled ambitions, inner pain, violence, and yearning. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" was not what I expected, and I'm glad it wasn't. Raymond Carver's stories are told in simple yet powerful language and are highly recommended.

When we talk about love... we talk about its fluctuations and sometimes its sad and hurtful endings.

A collection of short stories by the American writer and poet Raymond Carver was published in 1981.

It tells about the events of life and its changing paths and the complexities of the human soul.

We witness the weight of reality in different human relationships.

The characters are overcome by breakdown and the feeling of loss.

Situations of loss, longing, unity, relapse, betrayal.

Different stories told with limited details and without clear endings.

Carver's stories often explore the ordinary and the mundane, yet manage to揭示 the profound emotions and experiences that lie beneath the surface.

His writing style is简洁 and direct, yet powerful and evocative.

These stories offer a glimpse into the human condition and the many facets of love and relationships.

They make us思考 our own lives and the choices we make.

Whether we have experienced the same joys and sorrows as the characters in the stories or not, we can all relate to the universal themes of love, loss, and longing.

Carver's work continues to be widely read and studied today, a testament to its enduring appeal and significance.

This collection, part of the 1980s Vintage Contemporaries series, features seventeen vintage Raymond Carver works. One of them is "Viewfinder" where an abandoned husband throws stones while being photographed on his roof by a door-to-door salesman/photographer with hooks instead of hands. Another is "A Serious Talk" where an ex-husband cuts the telephone line in the kitchen in a rage when his ex-wife takes a call in the bedroom. And "One More Thing" shows a husband, wife, and daughter accusing each other of being nuts.

The title story, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love", is a symposium. Two couples, Mel and Terri, Laura and Nick, sit around Mel's kitchen table one evening, drinking gin and discussing love. This story has echoes of Plato's "Symposium", but in 20th century America, the object of love is still gender-specific. The characters debate about Ed, Terri's former lover who tried to kill her, embodying the ancient Greek myth of Dionysius. Mel also shares how Ed threatened his life and how he had to buy a gun for protection. Terri's compassion for Ed when he was dying is the only example of love transcending physical attraction in the story. Laura and Nick claim to know what true love is, but Terri is jealous, knowing from experience that the honeymoon phase will end. Mel asks a probing question about what happens to love over time, and he relates a story of a tragic accident that impressed him. The story ends with all four characters falling silent, sensing the presence of Dionysius and the potential for destruction. Raymond Carver is truly a master of the short story.