What is the main conflict in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver?

The stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are considered the epitome of Carver's sparse, minimalist writing style. Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L. Stull refer to the volume as Carver's "minimalist masterpiece." Meyer explains that "the collection has been nicknamed the 'minimalist bible,' and when readers and critics consider Carver a minimalist they generally have this volume in mind." Meyer concludes that "because it is the volume that established Carver as a major literary figure, it has remained the collection most associated with him." Gentry and Stull note that "the bare-boned collection proved immensely influential on a younger generation of short-story writers coming of age in the 1980s."