Patrick's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11438.What_We_Talk_About_When_We_Talk_About_Love_Stories?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1222897373m/11438.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11438.What_We_Talk_About_When_We_Talk_About_Love_Stories?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7363.Raymond_Carver">Raymond Carver</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26988589?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>Short stories and minimalism go hand and hand like, well, something I’m sure. <br/> <br/>Oddly enough, when I was just about to start reading this book I happened to be at the dentist mulling around his waiting room for a teeth cleaning. And glancing at the December 24 & 31 2007 Winter Fiction issue of The New Yorker, I ran across an article in their Life and Letters section entitled Rough Crossing, The cutting of Raymond Carver. <br/> <br/>A little taken back by the sheer coincidence of fate. I began reading the article only to find that Carver’s editor at Alfred A. Knopf, a mister Gordon Lish, appeared to be the purported mastermind to Carver’s minimalist writing style. The article starts with Carver freaking out over the editorial cuts to his short stories soon to be published in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Some stories had been cut as much as seventy percent. The article continues with excerpts from Carver and Lish’s correspondences, where Carver argues for more, Lish for less. There’s a bit of “what you don’t love me no more?” And then a reproduction of an actual page from Carver’s story: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, that Lish had edited, an entire two thirds of a page crossed out, with one paragraph completely rewritten – out of thirty lines, only ten have either been saved or revised by Lish. <br/> <br/>I must say I was slightly appalled. I mean who was the writer here? What the hell was going on? Confused and mildly titillated I went home and read the book. <br/> <br/>Craver’s a great writer. He is a master at show don’t tell. His pieces are moody, dark and the minimalism plays off well with his sparse style of dialog and description. Is it Carver? Is it Lish’s editing? Who cares? Obviously working together they created some amazing writing. The relationship of writer and editor should be such that between the two of them a great work of art can be produced through each of them pushing the other to work at their own full potentials. <br/> <br/>What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is an excellent collect of short stories from a strong writer, with the help of his gifted editor. <br/> <br/>Short stories and minimalism go hand and hand like Post-Impressionism and absinthe. <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1316664?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>