What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Raymond Carver
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Principal Characters: Mel McGinnis, Terry, Nick, Laura
- Genres: Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1970’s, Husbands, United States or Americans, Wives, Love or romance, Suicide, Marriage, Doctors, Divorce, Southwest
- Locales: Albuquerque, NM
The Story
Nick, who is Mel's close friend, recounts a conversation that the two men and their wives had over gin and tonics in Mel and Terry's kitchen. The remembered dialogue is dominated by Mel, who is determined to articulate a definition of real love. Nick occasionally departs from recounting the conversation to remark briefly on the room, or on the progress of their drunkenness, or to give background information about himself or whoever is speaking. The story begins with Nick's suggestion that because Mel was a cardiologist, that sometimes “gave him the right.”
...[The entire page is 1440 words long]
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