The power of this minimalist story from Raymond Carver about the difficulty of defining “real” love lies in its realism. The two couples involved in the alcohol-fueled conversation are not experts; each member has experienced a failed marriage. None of them can describe love, but they do manage to give examples of what it is and isn’t, and what can go wrong when it ends. The mood darkens along with the emptying bottle, and by story’s end all four are too despondent to move. Themes: the nature of love, the limits of language, marriage and divorce, alcohol abuse.
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