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If I Loved You I Would Tell You This

by Robin Black (Goodreads Author)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 975 ratings · 230 reviews

If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This explores life’s rich silences in relationships both acknowledged and covert, and in the unspoken, often treacherous dynamics of families. Written with maturity and insight, these stories plumb the depths of love, loss and hope.

A blind teenager sees the fractures in her parents’ marriage more clearly than they can themselves. A mother c...more

Paperback, 268 pages

Published June 2010 by Scribe Publications Pty Ltd (first published March 30th 2010)

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Apr 26, 2010 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, short-story-collection, lit, goodreads-giveaway

Just a minute ago the world made sense. The ground under your feet was strong, concrete. But now...now your heart is racing, the noise that just a moment ago existed now sucked up into a vacuum of complete silence, and that cold sweat that you'd always heard about is now pooling at the back of your neck. But all you can do is stand there, protected by an invisible bubble that was kind enough to shut out the world because it knows, even if you don't, that you and everything you know is about to c...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Thing Two rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Thing Two by: Warren Wilson

Shelves: books-favorite-fiction, books-you-might-have-missed, mfa-warren-wilson, short-stories

This short story collection was excellent! I read it in twenty-four hours - waking up early to finish the last story. The author writes from multiple points of view - man/woman old/young. She deals with a variety of difficult situations - with humor, and grace, and heart. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a well written short story - there are 10 here. I can't wait to see more from Robin Black!

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Jul 27, 2011 Urmila rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finally finished this (obviously I had very little incentive to continue to pick up a book that just made me feel bad). That said, Black is a very good writer, and she creates interesting characters. And each story, by itself, is well-written and (usually) engrossing. Read as a collection, however, these "stories" constitute cheap, manipulative, and lazy storytelling. People suffer. Then they suffer more. Then they may, or may not, learn something from that suffering. Or perhaps they're not se...more

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May 07, 2012 Lisa Walker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I Loved You I Would Tell You This is American author, Robin Black’s, first book. This collection of ten short stories delves deep into the minefield of human relationships.
One of the things I found quite lovely about this book was the varied female characters. The first story, The Guide, features a sharp-talking blind girl who knows more about her parents’ marriage than they think. In If I Loved You, the story which gives its name to the collection, a woman tries to get inside the head of h...more If I Loved You I Would Tell You This is American author, Robin Black’s, first book. This collection of ten short stories delves deep into the minefield of human relationships.
One of the things I found quite lovely about this book was the varied female characters. The first story, The Guide, features a sharp-talking blind girl who knows more about her parents’ marriage than they think. In If I Loved You, the story which gives its name to the collection, a woman tries to get inside the head of her uncaring neighbour who is building a high fence.
Other stories showcase the inevitable cheating husbands and cheating wives with all the pain and wanting this entails. Immortalising John Parker introduces an aging painter mourning for the loss of her illicit lover. In an unusual and tender image she reflects that; “fighting off the moment of conversation had been like fighting off an orgasm, the delay designed to increase the pleasure.”
The stories often draw elements together in surprising ways. In Pine a woman who has lost a leg is juxtaposed with a woman who has lost her husband. Black writes of the unspoken conversation between men and women. “This dishonesty of ours, as we prop each other up, tell one another jokes... It is the force of this pretence that pulls our words endlessly into those places of intimacy.” I’m sure we’ve all been there.
There were so many lines I wanted to quote. Take this philosophical turn from Gaining Ground, “‘So what?’ I can still hear him say, like when we first met. ‘So what?’ I just think there’s an answer to that. Even if I haven’t found it yet. I just think there has to be.” Me too.
Black’s writing is pared down, with a strong voice that draws the reader in. She has a knack of finding words for feelings that run so deep they are hard to voice, giving you that ‘aha’ feeling you get with the best writing. I would have gladly read a novel based on any of these stories, such was my interest in the characters. Clearly this is a book written by a woman has been around a bit. Black shares generously what she has learnt in her travels through the heart.
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Nov 28, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I could not put this book down. I felt so connected to the characters in this group of short stories that I just couldn't help being fascinated with them. This is a compilation of short stories. The characters in each story are not connected to one another, and yet there is an amazing flow and symbiotic quality to them all. Being in the mind of these characters feels more real to me than actual human beings. It makes me feel proud to be in on the secret (or not so secret) that all of us have sec...more

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Jul 06, 2011 David Hebblethwaite rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting collection of stories whose characters are frequently dealing with loss, secrets, and troubled relationships. What I find particularly striking in many of the pieces is the way Black foregrounds a particular plot thread that reflects, comments on, or interacts in some way with the relationship situation going on elsewhere.

So, for example, in ‘The Guide’, when Jack Snyder takes his daughter Lila to buy a guide dog, it’s not only a way for him to make up for not being able to protec...more An interesting collection of stories whose characters are frequently dealing with loss, secrets, and troubled relationships. What I find particularly striking in many of the pieces is the way Black foregrounds a particular plot thread that reflects, comments on, or interacts in some way with the relationship situation going on elsewhere.

So, for example, in ‘The Guide’, when Jack Snyder takes his daughter Lila to buy a guide dog, it’s not only a way for him to make up for not being able to protect her from the accident that blinded Lila as a child; it’s also an opportunity for Jack to figure out how he’s going to tell his daughter about his affair. In ‘Harriet Elliot’, the narrator’s relationship with the titular new girl at school – who has outlandish tales of being kidnapped and held to ransom as a small child – is what keeps her going as her home-life disintegrates (the demarcation between background and foreground is particularly sharp and noticeable in this story).

Elsewhere in If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, we have further memorable characters and incidents. Some that stand out in particular to me are: Artie and Nina from ‘Some Women Eat Tar’, a couple about to become parents, though it was Artie’s idea and he wants to be in charge of everything, whilst Nina is at best ambivalent about it; Clara Feinberg, the portrait painter in ‘Immortalizing John Parker’, who’s trying to understand the subject of her latest commission at the same time as her ex-husband’s re-entering her life; and Kate Rodgers, who finds echoes of her relationship with her twin brother when interacting with others on holiday in ‘The History of the World’.

Just about the only story in the collection that I didn’t get along with was the earliest, ‘Gaining Ground’ – not because of its content, but because its prose style was so different from that of the rest; choppier and more self-conscious, it rubbed me the wrong way and really stuck out in comparison with the smoother telling of the other stories. Leaving that one piece aside, though, Black’s debut is well worth a read.(less)

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May 03, 2011 Girls Gone Reading rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The line between good writing and eloquence is so small that is difficult to describe. If I Loved You is pure eloquence. I can’t explain exactly why, but as soon as you read the first line you know…this book is going to be phenomenal.

If I Loved You is a collection of short stories, but the book is constructed with a running theme that connects them all. Each of the characters is focused on time: how it changes you, how it races by us, and how we all wish we could let go of the need to control it...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Abigail rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just grabbed this book off a library shelf because the cover and title were intriguing. I read the first story and thought "Hmmm, pretty good. Wonder how the others will compare." The next was also great. And the next. And the next. All ten of them were incredible pieces of fiction. I have never come across such well developed and deeply feeling characters in short stories. I have never read a collection of short stories that I simply couldn't put down. In fact, I am often drawn to short stori...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, grown-up, salute-your-shorts

And I'm done with literary fiction. Blame it on me, some deficiency makes me incapable of being moved or impressed by your prose. I also don't appreciate the false advertising. These stories weren't about "keen observations of the human condition" as the blurbs would lead you to believe. They were about dying spouses (mostly cancer), dead brothers, dead babies...shall I go on?
When I took a creative writing (read no genre, just literary fiction please) workshop my teacher said that protagonist s...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decades ago, Ernest Hemingway said that the most important thing was to “write what’s true.” By that criterion, Robin Black’s collection of 10 short stories is an unqualified success. All of them are quite good and some of them are downright exceptional. She writes about the truest things in life – fragility, loss, and the secrets we keep from each other.

Her characters could walk off the pages – that’s how authentic they are. Take Jack Snyder in the opening story, The Guide. He is taking his col...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Leila T. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've just realised that I'm mainly doing written reviews of the books I don't like so much. It's probably because I feel like I need to explain myself, and also probably because the books that I really like I just feel all mentally cozed up with; I just like the feelings I get from them and all that sentimental crap doesn't translate well in a review.

In any case: "If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This" is not one of my favourites. It's probably a one-and-a-half stars, because there were tiny ele...more I've just realised that I'm mainly doing written reviews of the books I don't like so much. It's probably because I feel like I need to explain myself, and also probably because the books that I really like I just feel all mentally cozed up with; I just like the feelings I get from them and all that sentimental crap doesn't translate well in a review.

In any case: "If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This" is not one of my favourites. It's probably a one-and-a-half stars, because there were tiny elements that I did like a little bit.

I can't remember where I saw this book recommended, but it was really really recommended, and then you'll notice that the average review of this book on GoodReads is 3.75, which I think is pretty high.

So my expectations were high.

It's ten short stories about the "minds and hearts of people navigating the unsettling transitions that life presents to us all." Supposedly. But what I found is that the stories are about infidelity, divorce, special-needs children, more infidelity, lies, and death. Sometimes all at once. All ten stories stick with those themes, or at least that's how I remember it (I'm not going to find the book to double-check, mainly because I don't care enough).

If those themes appeared once in one story each, I would probably feel less grouchy about the book as a collection, although there were other things that bothered me about the writing. But they were repeat offenders, all of them. It became extremely repetitive and boring. Nothing new was really brought to the table in each subsequent iteration of the theme---despite a change of characters in each short story. And it's so obvious! It's too obvious for a writer to repeatedly write about adultery when she's trying to get at the "unsettling transitions that life presents to us all." There are so very many other transitions that life presents to us ALL, with more frequency, and more relevancy, than people who cheat on their spouses. There are other things, more subtle, nuanced, and with perhaps less need to ostentatiously use swear words to show that the characters (and therefore the writer) are still "with-it", but that are fresher, more interesting, and way more relevant to the lives of everyday people than almost ten stories that talk about adultery.

And then, in the "Acknowledgements", I read that the writer spent eight years writing these ten stories! If they had all been written at once, back to back, or something, it would be understandable that the writer had been going through some soul-searching in relation to a personal or removed experience of infidelity. But it seems as though she was preoccupied with this theme for almost a decade? I can't understand it.

Yawn. It's just not as fascinating as it's made out to be.

And when characters in their seventies are casually swearing in regular conversation over dinner, I call bullshit. (You see what I did there?) It does not ring true at all. What elderly gentleman would say something like (not actually in the book) "Pass the fucking salt, please?"? It's "shocking" language done for effect. It's false. It's not shocking and revolutionary, it's boring and embarrassing. It's jarring for the reader, who is trying to get under the skins of the characters: it's like finding a lump of cheddar cheese in a chocolate mousse. You want to have a do-over, because it's not chocolate mousse at all, it's a mess that tastes weird.

And in almost every story (again, according to my memory) there is an instance of jarring use of language, words that come out of the mouths or actions committed by the characters that just do not seem to fit at all. It does not allow the reader to dissolve into the writing, into the characters: it makes the reader trip up over the mental imagery conjured by the dissonance between the proposed character and what they are proposed to be saying or doing. It made me read many paragraphs repeatedly, trying for a different reading of what was written there, trying to understand where the writing of that character was going. And it seemed to me, every time, that the character wasn't going to go anywhere, because they weren't "real". They were two-dimensional, written people only. I didn't believe in almost any of them, so the stories became exercises for me in examining syntax and dialogue, considering vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

I never once felt like I was being taken inside the minds and hearts of these characters. "Plumb[ing:] the depths of love, loss and hope" was completely absent for me, in these stories. It was all empty shallowness and repetition of themes.

It took me a whole week to read this book because I was not at all interested in it. I read it every night before bed because reading helps me sleep. This book, in particular, helped me sleep because it was repetitive and boring and I had no problems whatsoever putting it down before turning off the light.(less)

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Leila T. Hi Ruth, I thought about this, and I do revisit books sometimes and get different things from them depending on what life has happened in the meantime...more
Dec 04, 2010 06:54pm

Ruth Seeley It's important to remember that judging writing is always subjective. I, for instance, recently read Saramago's Blindness and was gritting my teeth th...more
updated Dec 04, 2010 07:13pm

Feb 07, 2011 Ke Huang rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a reader with a specific taste, I feel glad that Black doesn't love me because I wouldn't want to hear what she has to tell me.

Although she seems to ground the stories in real illnesses and family dramas, they seem a little melodramatic for my taste. The diseases seem to be driving the story instead of the agency of the characters.

For her descriptions, Black seems to take a list-making approach.

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Jul 08, 2010 Isaac (Tower of Stories) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review is going to be somewhat awkward. The stories in this book are all excellently written and well told. If I saw any one of the 10 stories in this collection published in The New Yorker I'd think they'd made a great choice (especially after the one they published this week). But when they're all put together they make something much less than the sum of its parts.

Mrs. Black spent the last 8 years going to various workshops and getting an MFA while working on her stories, and that dedica...more This review is going to be somewhat awkward. The stories in this book are all excellently written and well told. If I saw any one of the 10 stories in this collection published in The New Yorker I'd think they'd made a great choice (especially after the one they published this week). But when they're all put together they make something much less than the sum of its parts.

Mrs. Black spent the last 8 years going to various workshops and getting an MFA while working on her stories, and that dedication shows. She is a great writer with well-honed skills. However, she's also like a magician who has worked on one trick for several years. Yes, she can probably do that trick better than anyone, but eventually the audience is going to want to see something else.

In this case that "trick" is stories of loss. That loss comes in a number of forms, but whether it's the loss of a loved one, a friendship, or innocence, it's always tragic and leads to sad ruminations on life and love, or the lack thereof. If the characters in these stories are ever happy, it is either brief or an emotion felt by a secondary character. In nearly every marital relationship there is infidelity, many of the children have something wrong with them, and there is bad blood all around. By the time I reached the end of the book I couldn't help but say "Of course they did" when a character died or left their marriage for someone else, because I'd already seen it happen in the other stories.

The characters themselves do things that are unexpected, but often in jarring ways. For example, I don't mind swearing in fiction, people use bad language all the time, but some of the people in these stories swear like they're just learning how. When a character in one story says "F***ing children. F***ing heartaches, all of them," I could only wonder 'Where the f**k did that come from?' because it was so out of place for that character.

None of that is to say that I don't recommend this book. I do, because the stories are really good. The characters and plots are well-developed, and all other technical aspects are great. The problem is that it shouldn't be read cover-to-cover at one time. I recommend you read a story or two, then bury it under a pile of books or in your back garden, then about a month later when you've stopped thinking about the last story you read dig it back up again and go on to the next one, then repeat. That way you'll enjoy the stories without getting weighed down by the tragedy of them all.

I think that Mrs. Black is a tremendously talented writer and I look forward to seeing what she publishes next. I just hope that next time she'll show us what other tricks are up her sleeve.
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Jul 25, 2011 Larry Hoffer added it · review of another edition

What a beautifully moving book this was. Robin Black's short story collection examined the tenuous connections of relationships—between parent and child, lovers, friends, siblings, even strangers. Some of the stories (one in particular) made me laugh out loud, some made me cry, but all made me think and have definitely touched my heart. Some of the most memorable stories included the opening story, "The Guide," which followed a father reluctantly watching his blind daughter get ready to head off...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Ruth Seeley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have not been this excited about a writer since I first encountered Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Barbara Gowdy. These stories are like the rarest, most highly polished, and precious of gems from an extremely mature writer. I'm not surprised the 10 stories in the collection took eight years to write. While all the stories deal with loss and the grieving process in one form or another, there is nothing bleak about them. They are, rather, intricately layered pleas for kindness, empathy and a form...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reads

This is one of those short-story collections that has a distinct, unmissable theme. And the theme is: If You Are Married and/or a Parent, Bad Things Will Happen (including, but not limited to, cancer, brain damage, and being abruptly chucked by your spouse). Needless to say, this was a disturbing theme for yours truly and it occasioned some very dramatic thinking circa 2:30 am. As for the more objective portion of this review: Black does this theme well, though the repetition is ultimately frust...more

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May 16, 2011 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautifully written. I haven't read a book of short stories in years, preferring longer more fleshed-out novels to shorter "snippets". With short stories, those that are well done, anyway, I'm always impressed with the writer's ability to tell multiple stories and, as is the case with this collection, have each story be so different and feel so complete.
This deserves at least four stars for the writing alone. Several reviewers have called it "eloquent", and I'd have to agree with that. At times...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received this book as a part of Library Thing's advance reader reviews. They send you a free book in exchange for a review! The book comes out on March 30th.

Robin Black is an exciting new writer, and I can't wait until she writes her first full length novel. Until then, you can wait patiently with her debut of short stories, "If I loved you, I would tell you this". The theme that ties all the stories together is a theme of transitions, and how we cope with them.

As you know, I'm not usually a f...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Wendy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, 2010-reads, short-stories

Got this free through First Reads!

In general I like short story collections. I like reading a little bit at a time, skipping around, having the chance to peek into lots of different characters' lives. Also, if I'm not into one story, it doesn't have to ruin the whole book for me, as I may just like the next.

If I Loved You, I would Tell You This had those things I like about short story collections going for it, and the bonus of underlying themes tying the stories together. I liked some of the s...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reading-challenge, fiction, short-stories, absolute-favourites

What a beautiful collection of short stories. Robin Black's writing reminds me of Alice Munro. She paints her characters with clarity, breathes life into them, and their stories, become our stories. While I was reading I was reminded of the quote, "Life breaks all of us. But some of us become stronger in the broken places". Not one of Black's characters escapes grief and tragedy, whether on a small or large scale, but she manages to transform them all, give meaning to randomness, and leave us wi...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Carole added it · review of another edition

I am obsessed with short stories. In a letter to a friend, Mark Twain once said, "I would like to have written a shorter letter but didn't have the time," and I think that sums up the art form perfectly. To me, short stories are one of the greatest, most challenging, and most infuriating forms of writing. In 5,000 words or less a short story has a tremendous responsibility. Joyce claimed that to write a short story was to glimpse the miraculous and called his stories "epiphanies." A good short s...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Ferris rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found myself both depressed and enjoying this collection of short stories by Robin Black. It was a depressing experience because she did such a good job of capturing and describing elements of the human condition. It was enjoyable, because she did it very well. I particularly enjoyed the titles of the short stories, almost all of which could be taken literally or metaphorically. For example, "Pine"....wood in a floor or to pine away for someone/something.........or "Gaining Ground".......groun...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Bev rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

I've said repeatedly that I am not a fan of short stories, but I have recently read three collections that have been wonderful (the other two were by Jhumpa Lahiri), so it's probably time to revise that statement! Each story in this book is a mini-masterpiece, extremely well-crafted, powerfully subtle and emotionally riveting. Robin Black says it took her eight years to perfect these stories, and that is evident--it is clear that she put time and care into each sentence. The only reason I did no...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Pooker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a sucker for short stories. I love them. I have since I discovered those early works by Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood and found myself in their stories. I still find myself, my more mature self, in Munro and Atwood's stories (God, I miss Margaret Laurence)and it is against their stories that I measure those of any other short story writer. Whose stories measure up? Lynn Coady's. Deborah Willis's. Diane Schoemperlen's. Audrey Thomas's. Mavis Gallant's. Hmm... I guess lot...more I am a sucker for short stories. I love them. I have since I discovered those early works by Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood and found myself in their stories. I still find myself, my more mature self, in Munro and Atwood's stories (God, I miss Margaret Laurence)and it is against their stories that I measure those of any other short story writer. Whose stories measure up? Lynn Coady's. Deborah Willis's. Diane Schoemperlen's. Audrey Thomas's. Mavis Gallant's. Hmm... I guess lots do. Do I favour female Canadian writers? I suspect so, but have to acknowledge that I also love the short stories of Mark Anthony Jarman, Alistair MacLeod and Kevin Patterson. So maybe it's their "Canadianness" that does it for me. Certainly, I have this idea that I will most relate to and therefor like Canadian short stories above any others.

So I have to admit, that I was quite prepared to say that Robin Black's stories were good if they were, but I assumed that I would also be able to say that they were not quite as good as those of my darling Canadian authors. I can't say that!

These stories are wonderful. They all are. It is impossible for me to even list a favourite, to say that this one is better than another. Each of them moved me. Each of them clutched at my heart and squeezed until I hurt. Each of them contained characters that were fully formed human beings; people I knew and understood as well as if I had a whole novel in which to get to know them.

I was rather taken aback to think that this is Black's first book. How could a neophyte produce such polished work? Frankly, I was relieved to learn that it took her eight years to put to these stories together. And I was frankly charmed to read in her post at Beyond the Margins http://beyondthemargins.com/2011/02/t... that for every one story in this book she'd started twenty others. In saying that, I really don't mean to belittle the author's talent. Robin Black is clearly a talented writer. It's that I appreciate the labour. The nooks and crannies of each story have been lovingly swept clean of deritus. So that I, the reader, find each one like a treasure; a truth, naked and pure and perfect in every way.

I don't suppose that Robin Black is Canadian? If not, I'm willing to let her in.

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May 21, 2012 Kristina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not one to just sit and read a collection of short stories. When I finish a story (of any length), I like to take at least ten minutes (sometimes an entire day) and think about it. If the story doesn't make me do that, it's not a good story.
So I only made it through half of the collection before the library needed the book back. And that was rushing it, because every single story I read gave me cause to sit and think about it. My very favorite was the title story, "If I Loved You," but I lov...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This rating is based on my personal preferences, not the quality of the writing. Black is a great writer in the modern realist tradition. I enjoyed the stories. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, and they success greatly on every level. Except for my personal level where I want a type of intellectual stimulation ignored by the realists. Again, this is not to claim any deficiency, except perhaps in myself, in that I can't get too deeply involved in even the slightly unrealistic world of...more

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Dec 07, 2010 ag Berg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was captivated by each short story. As it is with short stories though I feel like I turned on an movie on HBO and am able to catch just a fragment of the whole thing, like sitting in the movies and having the power go out in the middle of the show, speaking to an aging parent who loses their thought before they finish it. Short stories leave me stranded. I get all involved with the story and the characters and then they are gone, no time to predict the ending, turn the page and the story end...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Marc rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book very much, and I also had the opportunity to hear Robin Black read as part of the All But True fiction series at the Muse House Center in Chestnut Hill, PA. What really struck me about Black's reading and discussion of her work was her honesty about the writing process: each story in this collection, she explained, took somewhere in the neighborhood of nine months to write. And it shows... These stories are beautifully crafted and highly moving. Moreover, as a writer myself,...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is excellent. In the past I've often been left dissatisfied by short stories, as if their authors had tried to tell too big a story in too small a frame. Robin Black does the opposite -- she shows the reader brief moments and vignettes in the lives of her characters. This way, instead of focusing on the literary process of character development or trying to invent believable people, she is able to tell the stories of men and women who seem to already exist and focus on what's really im...more

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May 03, 2011 Doneen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What drew me to this book was the title, and it remains my ONLY favorite thing about the book.

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“It's unexpectedly painful to have become a pronoun.” — 30 people liked it

“Leaning in, he kisses her on the cheek. Like an old acquaintance, she thinks. As though there had never been any passion, nor love, nor rage, nor anything much, just some traces of innocuous familiarity between them. Live long enough, it seems, and every fire can burn itself out.” — 4 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8345731-if-i-loved-you-i-would-tell-you-this?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1275285405l/8345731.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8345731-if-i-loved-you-i-would-tell-you-this?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]If I Loved You I Would Tell You This by Robin Black[/url]

If I Loved You I Would Tell You This

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