CK’s Reviews > What We Talk About When We Talk About Love > Status Update

5/17 I Could See the Smallest Things: My favorite of the short stories so far, I love how descriptive Carver is about the moon and how it shines over a paused suburban life - a moment of quiet rebellion in doing something outside of the expected routine of your life, especially as a woman.

4/17 Gazebo: I love how a hotel can serve as a metaphor for outside forces pushing in on a relationship, and how an idealized structure like a gazebo feels more stable than a place people need (a hotel). Realizing that starting new can happen at any time in your life, especially from something bad you’ve lived though or done, can feel freeing but empty

3/17 Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit: A lot of dialogue in this one but I keep getting confused on who is speaking and when - but maybe the comparison of the marriages, the narrator’s own and his parents - are meant to be confused because the follow similar patterns

2/17 Viewfinder: Starting to sense a theme here of being physically trapped in suburbia and emotionally trapped with grief and abandonment. Interesting metaphors here of what it means to hold onto something with what you have, with what you’ve been dealt with, worse or better than others

1/17 Why Don't You Dance: Interesting display of perspectives of two people (the couple almost acting as an individual while the older man acts as one half of a couple) who feel for one brief moment as if they have swapped trajectories, looking into the experience they are missing but not quite being able to grasp it.