Cathedral vs What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: American Short stories, Manners and customs, Short Stories, Fiction
Cathedral
Twelve stories deal with loneliness, loss, the tragic banality of everyday life, and redemption.
vs
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love has the widest readership — 81529 ratings behind its score.
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love runs the darker storyline; Cathedral stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Cathedral | What We Talk About When We Talk About Love | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.0 (81529) |
| Hardcover | 4.2 (74) | 4.0 (145) |
| Google Books | — | 4.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (44) | 4.0 (77) |
Reception
| Cathedral | What We Talk About When We Talk About Love | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 74 | 81529 |
| Editions | 38 | 33 |
| Citations | — | 108 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 132609 |
| Reading it now | — | 4800 |
| Written reviews | — | 8028 |
| Wikipedia attention | 217 | 6054 |
| Pages | 238 | 159 |