SOURCE: Runyon, Randolph Paul. “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” In Reading Raymond Carver, pp. 131–35. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992.

In the following excerpt, Runyon offers a stylistic analysis of “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.”

In the title story [“What We Talk about When We Talk about Love”] of the collection [What We Talk about When We Talk about Love], two couples are sitting around talking and drinking gin: Mel, a cardiologist; his wife, Terri; the narrator, Nick; and his wife, Laura. Terri recalls her lover Ed, who used to beat her. “He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch’” (138). Mel argues that such violent behavior couldn't have been love, while Terri maintains that it was. Mel recounts Ed's threats against his life, and Ed's eventual suicide.

Mel then...