What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

More from Gallagan's shelf. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is probably most famous for it's somewhat repetitive title, which spawned a few parodies- such as a book on running by one of my new favorite authors, Murakami. Anyway What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of short stories from Raymond Carver that seem to set out to answer that question from many different angles. The seventeen shorts all have a 'love story' at their heart, but most only offer a glimpse into peoples' lives that ends far too quickly. While a few can stand alone as stories I'd sorta recommend, most just feel like the start of a potentially good book that for some reason Carver stopped writing at page 10. I always thought the short story medium lent itself well to clever mysteries or parables that can be consumed in bite-size chunks, while stories that really try to capture emotions should be given a bit more depth, but Carver apparently felt different. Oh well, I don't think I'm going to run into him again as there aren't any more Carver books on the still-in-progress Gallagan's Shelf.