A review by jadelianne
What We Talk about When We Talk about Love by Raymond Carver
5.0
Picking up this book, I was expecting something sweet and a little sappy... "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love", right? Love is sweet and sappy.
Nope. Nope. No, it is not.
This collection is best described as bleak. There is not a happy or sappy story in the bunch. But it was absolutely wonderful.
The writing was so sparse and uninterested, it added to the grimness of the lives of the characters. The stories never give you more information than you need, and often less than you want, but I think that sort of "leaving it to your imagination" gives each tale even more of an effect. You know what happened. But you're given the space to try to deny it.
I had never read anything quite like this. There were a couple stories near the beginning that didn't really catch my fancy, but once the collection got going, it really went.
I really felt it was an almost perfect collection.
Nope. Nope. No, it is not.
This collection is best described as bleak. There is not a happy or sappy story in the bunch. But it was absolutely wonderful.
The writing was so sparse and uninterested, it added to the grimness of the lives of the characters. The stories never give you more information than you need, and often less than you want, but I think that sort of "leaving it to your imagination" gives each tale even more of an effect. You know what happened. But you're given the space to try to deny it.
I had never read anything quite like this. There were a couple stories near the beginning that didn't really catch my fancy, but once the collection got going, it really went.
I really felt it was an almost perfect collection.