What we talk about when we talk about love

Summarized summary

Two couples and friends were sitting around the main character's kitchen table, drinking gin and enjoying each other's company.

Somehow they ended up on the topic of love. From there on, our MC and his wife carry the bulk of the conversation, talking about their past experience as regards love and what true love is.

From an abusive ex-husband who "loved" his at the time wife, to an elderly couple in their 70s whose honeymoon phase seemingly never ended.

Characters

• Nick, the narrator
• Laura, Nick's wife
• Mel[vin], a cardiologist and the main character
• Terri, Mel's wife
• Ed, Terri's ex-husband

Themes

• The elusive nature of love
• The Duality of love
• The Inadequacy of Language

Style

• Dirty realism

Quotes & Symbolism

• Mel is more confused than anyone else

“the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us—excuse me for saying this—but if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other person, would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough.”

— Mel

• Love is inevitable

“But what I liked about knights, besides their ladies, was that they had that suit of armor, you know, and they couldn’t get hurt very easy. No cars in those days, you know? No drunk teenagers to tear into your a#@.”

— Mel

“But sometimes they suffocated in all that armor, Mel. They’d even have heart attacks if it got too hot and they were too tired and worn out. I read somewhere that they’d fall off their horses and not be able to get up because they were too tired to stand with all that armor on them. They got trampled by their own horses sometimes.”

— Nick

• Mel's words and actions do not align

“She’s allergic to bees,” Mel said. “If I’m not praying she’ll get married again, I’m praying she’ll get herself stung to death by a swarm of f#!@ing bees.”

— Mel

• The old couple

“Well, the husband was very depressed for the longest while. Even after he found out that his wife was going to pull through, he was still very depressed. Not about the accident, though. I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn’t everything. I’d get up to his mouth- hole, you know, and he’d say no, it wasn’t the accident exactly but it was because he couldn’t see her through his eye-holes. He said that was what was making him feel so bad. Can you imagine? I’m telling you, the man’s heart was breaking because he couldn’t turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife.”

— Mel

• Love in disguise

“We haven’t actually eaten there yet. But it looks good. From the outside, you know.”

— Terri

• The sun

Vocabulary