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Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love : Stories by Raymond Carver ISBN: 0-679-72305-6 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 June, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (31 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: As minimalist as he gets
Comment: Any true Carver fan will tell you that he is a "precisionist", not a "minimalist." That said, I still think this is the most minimalist of Carver's books.
Part of that is because of ruthless editors. I recently read that, despite Carver's protestations, many of the stories here were cut mercilessly. Some of this shows through later in his fiction -- "The Bath" is clearly a cut-back edition of "A Small, Good Thing", published in Cathedral, and a longer version of "So Much Water So Close to Home" can be found in "Where I'm Coming From."
Enough. You want to know about this book, not mumbo-jumbo about Carver and his other books. Carver is in fine form here, and his ability to portray pain, suffering, desperation, humor and hysteria in just a few pages is powerful.
Carver writes the blue collar, alcoholic, separated or divorced character so much and so well you begin to assume these things about this characters, his stories. Here is the working man's writer, and the writer's working man.
My favorites in this book are "Why Don't You Dance?", "Gazebo", "Everything Stuck to Him", and, of course, the title piece.
His writing is so well-executed it changes my patterns of thinking -- I wander with a Carver-esque grimness, loneliness. He doesn't just write about love and desperation, he writes them directly -- a distinction I can't really explain.
All that to say here is wonderful writing.
An example:
"My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right.
The four of us were sitting around his kitchen table drinking gin. Sunlight filled the kitchen from the big window behind the sink. There were Mel and me and his second wife, Teresa--Terri, we called her-- and my wife, Laura. We lived in Albequerque then. But we were all from someplace else."
--- if you'd like to discuss Carver with me, this book, my review, or anything else, e-mail me at [email protected]. i'd love to hear from you.
Rating: 5
Summary: Master of 'the moment'
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: Carver's best work
Comment: "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".
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Title: Cathedral by Raymond Carver ISBN: 0679723692 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Where I'm Calling From : Selected Stories by Raymond Carver ISBN: 0679722319 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? : Stories by Raymond Carver ISBN: 0679735690 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Short Cuts : Selected Stories by Raymond Carver, Robert Altman ISBN: 0679748644 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Call If You Need Me : The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose by Raymond Carver ISBN: 0375726284 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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