false 11438 13 In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women. 2739837 1972 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories total:4195|5:2148|4:1488|3:462|2:77|1:20| 4195 18252 5479 305 4 11 false false Mon Jul 13 21:20:16 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 01:07:50 -0700 2009
I'm an overeducated, mock-contemplative early-twenty-something with a penchant for strong male voices (despite my feminist leanings) and a distaste for anything too sentimental. I was raised in the tradition of "...more...]]> 4 4 false false Thu Dec 13 17:49:47 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 13 17:58:03 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 23:13:45 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 16:25:45 -0800 2009 Haruki Murakami counts Carver as an influence, and I can see that: they share a certain spare clarity of prose, and an occasional touch of beautiful oddness (though Murakami takes the latter much farther than Carv...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Apr 14 13:03:04 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 13:09:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jan 07 09:13:31 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 17 08:28:20 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 07 09:13:31 -0800 2009 unstated, from recent reading material, but that first story really just baffled me. I had no idea what to think of it. Proceeding along, there were stories that cer...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Apr 21 17:39:19 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 18:56:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 true false Sat Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 16 11:38:06 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 09 14:55:30 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Feb 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 15:58:38 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 16:24:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 19 13:34:18 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 13:36:49 -0800 2009 3 1 false false Fri May 11 09:02:46 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 10:37:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 20:23:17 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 18:45:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 04 21:10:51 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 23:15:16 -0800 2009
1. Carver is so often extolled for the verisimilitude of his dialogue, but it's not really there, is it? Even the most moving lines (especially those, actually) I can't imagine anyone uttering outside a Carver stor...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 27 22:58:26 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 16:00:37 -0800 2008
I won't lie. I didn't quite "get it" with all of the stories. But I think, perhaps, that's what the reader is supposed to feel. The ever present sense of loss, confusion...a sort of bittersweetn...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 07:46:25 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 09:47:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 22 11:07:17 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 22 11:08:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Apr 08 14:02:57 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 14:06:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 16:38:48 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 16:46:16 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Sep 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 16:47:26 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 19:03:51 -0700 2009 Did that need to be typed?
Did.
That.
?

Not for everyone, and not to be read all at once (one story a week, like a strong, bitter pill, is about right. But a pill i...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 14:51:02 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 15:11:39 -0800 2008 Reading through these made me feel like I was right in the middle of some struggle for life in the 1970s. While he doesn't give many details, I still could see myself in the some ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Oct 11 09:26:52 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 09:26:52 -0700 2007