WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE <i> by Raymond Carver Vintage: $6.95 </i>

Raymond Carver’s short stories suggest the prose equivalent to blues songs: brief vignettes of tough times, unfaithful lovers, unhappy lives, the ravages of alcohol. Unlike Dorothy Parker, who suffered with her characters, Carver remains a detached observer of their pain, delineating miniature dramas in a few spare sentences. His characters remain trapped in circumstances beyond their control, and the tone of impotent inevitability only increases the poignancy of their plight.