What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

The story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” is one of the weirdest short stories I’ve ever read. I could see where the author was going with it; however, it mostly seemed like scattered thoughts. The author jumped from dialogue to descriptions to thoughts of the narrator, making it difficult to follow. It seems like the author’s purpose in the structure of the short story was to list the events in sequence. The random thoughts of the narrator where scattered amongst descriptions and stories being told by the characters. The fact that the characters were mostly drunk and jumping from subject to subject seemed a little too realistic. I feel like the author may have been intoxicated while writing this. I also feel like some of the scenarios in this story where unrealistic. It was hard to relate to the different stories. It was also difficult for me to feel empathy for the characters. I felt like the characters were not developed well enough. Because the story began with the story of Terri being abused by a man who promised he loved her, it just struck me as shocking rather then making me feel any empathy for her. The way Terri viewed the extreme actions of her ex-boyfriend as a sign of love for her, made me sick. It’s hard to feel empathy or even a relation to someone who would be stupid enough to view a psychotic man as someone who loved her deeply. I think many times people confuse obsession, infatuation and lust with love. It is very obvious to me that none of these characters understand what love really is. I feel like this may be why the divorce rate is so high these days. People are so quick to get married and they don’t even know the true meaning of love. It’s sad to see the world become so meaningless. I believe the story was porely structured and difficult to grasp the meaning.