Raymond Carver wrote short fiction and poetry about working people, strained relationships, drinking, money and moments when ordinary conversation exposes deeper instability. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love collects compressed stories in which marriages, affairs and friendships are often revealed through pauses, repeated remarks and apparently minor incidents. Cathedral includes somewhat longer and more open narratives; its title story follows a sceptical narrator whose encounter with his wife's blind friend changes through the simple act of drawing a cathedral together. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and Where I'm Calling From provide other useful routes through his short fiction. Carver's prose is spare, concrete and dialogue-heavy, usually avoiding lengthy explanation of why characters behave as they do. Its main discovery routes are American short stories, literary realism and minimalist fiction. Cathedral is a strong first book for readers who want his direct style with more emotional and narrative room, while What We Talk About When We Talk About Love shows the tighter minimalist mode. Read more Less
No products in the cart.