What We Talk About When We Talk About Love [Paperback]

Raymond Carver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2003

This powerful collection of stories, set in the mid-west among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time, was the first by Raymond Carver to be published in the UK. With its spare, colloquial narration and razor-sharp sense of how people really communicate, the collection was to become one of the most influential literary works of the 1980's.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'One of America's most original, truest voices' Salman Rushdie

About the Author

Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938. His father was a saw-mill worker and his mother was a waitress and clerk. He married early and for years writing had to come second to earning a living for his young family. Despite, small-press publication, it was not until Will You Please Be Quiet Please? appeared in 1976 that his work began to reach a wider audience. This was the year in which he gave up alcohol, which had contributed to the collapse of his marriage. In 1977 he met the writer Tess Gallagher, with whom he shared the last eleven years of his life. During this prolific period he wrote three collections of stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral and Elephant. Fires, a collection of essays, poems and stories, appeared in 1985, followed by three further collections of poetry. In 1988 he completed the poetry collection A New Path to the Waterfall.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (July 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099449846
• ISBN-13: 978-0099449843
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,394,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938. His father was a saw-mill worker and his mother was a waitress and clerk. He married early and for years writing had to come second to earning a living for his young family. Despite, small-press publication, it was not until Will You Please Be Quiet Please? appeared in 1976 that his work began to reach a wider audience. This was the year in which he gave up alcohol, which had contributed to the collapse of his marriage. In 1977 he met the writer Tess Gallagher, with whom he shared the last eleven years of his life. During this prolific period he wrote three collections of stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral and Elephant. Fires, a collection of essays, poems and stories, appeared in 1985, followed by three further collections of poetry. In 1988 he completed the poetry collection A New Path to the Waterfall.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Book, June 7, 2010

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Paperback)

A slender 135 page book of 17 often brief stories all focusing on the theme of love, how it changes over time, changes in meaning and focus, how the idyll is so far removed from the daily grind.

These are fantastically written stories that seem half complete (you almost feel you are intruding on something that everyone bar you know all about) yet merge into a whole to really illuminate Carvers theme. Each tale is written in a sparse, clipped style that is unique in the way it 'talks' to you.

I've not come across too many collections like this that explore a central theme (Patrick White's 'Burnt Ones' and Richard Yate's 'Liars in Love' and 'Eleven kinds of lonliness' are the only ones that spring to mind) but this easily comes out top.Very impressive indeed.