What We Talk About When We Talk About Love : Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)

Rating:
Summary: Carver's best work
Review: "What We Talk About When We Talk About love" is probably the best compilation of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century available.

Unlike Cathedral, which sometimes feels a bit cliche or transparent, the work displayed here is pure genius, mastery of minimalism.

The main criticisms of Carver's work include tedium and a lack of "uplifting" messages. Personally I don't have a problem with either of these things, but beyond that I don't see these qualities in Carver's work.

There is an idea in Japanese Theatre of 'ma', what Hayao Miyazaki aptly describes as "The sound between claps". Carver is almost certainly the undisputed western king of this concept.
Carver not only emphasizes the everyday, but the everyday in between the incident.

There is an overwhelming amount of emotion, psychology and conflict to these pieces. The supposed hum-drum of pieces such as "Popular Mechanics" should be viewed as what they are, characters attempts to avoid conflict, where as "Tell the Women We're Going Out" offers a beautiful look at both the problems behind the problem and the way seeming innocence in a moment can be completely destroyed by context. Fans might want to try works of Anton Chekov, Charles Bukowski, John Gardner, Henrik Ibsen or the film "In the Bedroom".

Rating:
Summary: Carver's best work
Review: "What We Talk About When We Talk About love" is probably the best compilation of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century available.

Unlike Cathedral, which sometimes feels a bit cliche or transparent, the work displayed here is pure genius, mastery of minimalism.

The main criticisms of Carver's work include tedium and a lack of "uplifting" messages. Personally I don't have a problem with either of these things, but beyond that I don't see these qualities in Carver's work.

There is an idea in Japanese Theatre of 'ma', what Hayao Miyazaki aptly describes as "The sound between claps". Carver is almost certainly the undisputed western king of this concept.
Carver not only emphasizes the everyday, but the everyday in between the incident.

There is an overwhelming amount of emotion, psychology and conflict to these pieces. The supposed hum-drum of pieces such as "Popular Mechanics" should be viewed as what they are, characters attempts to avoid conflict, where as "Tell the Women We're Going Out" offers a beautiful look at both the problems behind the problem and the way seeming innocence in a moment can be completely destroyed by context. Fans might want to try works of Anton Chekov, Charles Bukowski, John Gardner, Henrik Ibsen or the film "In the Bedroom".

Rating:
Summary: Not for a shallow mind
Review: After reading the stories by this dead white man, I am convinced I will never truly understand any white man, dead or alive. I can't think of a better compliment than that.

Rating:
Summary: Let's all get our facts straight.
Review: Although I am a fan of Raymond Carver and this book, the purpose of my review is merely to clarify that the editor alluded to in the dialogue below is named Gordon Lish. It was Gordon Lish who became the fiction editor at Esquire and who first championed Raymond Carver's stories. And true, he had a hand in shaping those early fictions. It is worth noting, though, for those reviewers slinging anti-Carver invective, that Gordon Lish was an editor. That's what editors do. They read other people's work and help them make it better. Perhaps Lish was overzealous in his efforts early on. Still, I believe (although obvioulsy I was not there) that the core of the work, the vision, was Carver's. If there are others who need convincing, I suggest picking up Cathedral, Carver's last, most fully-realized collection. One read of Cathedral will, at least in the minds of sensitive, discriminating readers of literature, surely put to rest any doubts about Carver's talents as a writer. Not liking Raymond Carver is fine, but calling into question his integrity and ability based strictly on a series of rumors and sensational newspaper articles, is loony.

Rating:
Summary: SHORT BUT NOT REALLY SWEET
Review: As an author with my debut novel in its initial release, I cut my first writing teeth on short stories and I clearly realize Raymond Carver's brilliance. All of his collections are excellent. WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE is among his best. Carver can pour more felt life into a few thousand words than most of us other writers can do in tens of thousands of words. These stories--some odd, some simple, all minimalist--showcase Carver's talent as well as those in any other collection. If I could have ever learned to write short stories as powerful as Carver's, I likely would have never begun my successful career as a novelist.

Rating:
Summary: Master of 'the moment'
Review: I used to hate Carver. "Nothing happens in these stories!" I would say. "What does it MEAN, for God's sake?!" It took me a while to realise that Carver's genius isn't for the grand epiphany, the convoluted plot, or the surprise ending. His genius is for moments of pathos; for moments of carefully observed humanity; for human foibles unflinchingly, but never unkindly, revealed. You really have to read him for yourself to understand, but here's an example: the story "Gazebo", which is one of my favourites from this collection. The story works because what `the gazebo' means to the couple in the story is something most of us have felt: a dream of future happiness that is now lost to us; lost because we don't see how we might escape the banality of our own lives; lost because we fail to see how close we are to achieving it, if only we could slightly change the way we see things, or the way we live. None of this is overtly stated in the story - and that's Carver's genius. It is simply implied by juxtaposition. Thematic statements and grand epiphanies undermine so many stories (even some of Carver's earlier ones) because they are embarrassing. I don't mean embarrassing for the writer, I mean embarrassing for us, the readers: to have these slightly pathetic, vaguely shameful, and yet very human moments which are recognisably our own shoved in our faces feels like an accusation, and one we understandably reject. But to have them placed before us, gently, apparently undeliberately, so that we might see them for ourselves is wonderful. It engages OUR powers of observation and reflection, not just the writer's. We see ourselves reflected there in the story, and it's a private moment of self-revelation, of self-understanding. And more often than not, this is NOT a life-changing experience for us. No, the effect is much simpler, more realistic and more honest. It's a feeling of: "Oh, thank God. Other people feel this way, too. I'm not alone." It's a moment of empathy, not of explanation. Carver gives us this gift many times, and so well. Go read everything he's written. Especially if you're interested in writing your own stories. Carver's small body of work has as much to teach us about writing as it does about our lives.

Rating:
Summary: Carver's a Champ
Review: I've been using this book in literature classes in Japan, and I have to say that these stories have lost none of their power in the twenty-odd years since they first appeared in book form. Carver was a master at presenting the disillusioned and the lost in terse, understated, colloquial English that still is as crisp and fine as when it was first minted. Like Hemingway, Carver developed a method to freight the simplest words and sentences with a depth of meaning that can skew the whole story in an unexpected way, even in the very last sentence. This takes craft and talent, both qualities that Carver exhibits in the highest degree.

Some may find his choice of subject matter rather limited. His characters, too, often exhbit the same strengths and the same weaknesses (booze for instance)--and this may signal a kind of narrowness of vision to some. Certainly Carver does not have the breadth of a Tolstoy or a Doestoyevsky, or even of a Faulkner or a Hemingway--yet these limitations, I would argue, are also his greatest strengths. Though he does not have a universal sweep, Carver knows his territory well, and mines his subject in all kinds of fascinating ways.

All in all, this book is a fine introduction to Raymond Carver's work.

Carver's a champ in my book and I predict that some of these stories will find their way into the American canon right next to Melville, Poe, Emerson, and all the rest. What a chuckle for Ray when he looks down from his writer's heaven and notices the gold stamping on the spine!

Rating:
Summary: America Exposed
Review: Like all of Carver's books, this one is excellent. What more can I say? Buy it, buy it, buy it!

Rating:
Summary: An essential book by Gordon Lish
Review: The question of authorship should be immaterial to the reading of this work. Do we care what was left out? Do we care who wrote which sentence? In the end, whatever the process that produced them, this collection contains some of the most tragically beautiful stories I've read. The prose is minimal, but masterfully minimal -- it feels like the stories form the briefest of forays across the skin of a giant animal, and though you can't tell exactly what the animal is, or where it is going, you know there is something vaguely wrong, deep down below. The style Carver employs means that the smallest of incidents become important in mysterious ways, as if each part of the story, no matter how seemingly insignificant, contains part of the clue to the whole. But because of the sparse nature of the work, the clues never sum to a complete solution -- I feel like these stories reside somewhere between the tiny fictions we invent for people we glance at in the street, and fully-fledged realism which doesn't leave us room for imagination. Carver takes this space and with deft touches makes it seem both familiar and strange. Can't say enough about him. If you aspire to writing short stories, this will either set the bar for you or make you want to give up...

Rating:
Summary: Carver's writes truthful stories of the human experience
Review: What we talk about when . . . is a collection of stories that speak mountians of truth about love. Love is often viewed as a pure and simple emotion; however, Carver suggested it can be evil and complex as well. The romantic ideals are thrown aside as Carver shows us the truth. A wonderful collection of short stories digging deep in the human condition of emotions. His minimalist writing style lends the reader to believe every word written and to be opened up to the stories truth. You cannot read this collection without being changed and most likely wiser to the truth of being a human.