Critics have commented on the dreamlike quality of Eisenberg's stories. In Someone to Talk To, Aaron Shapiro literally dreams his way through much of the story, due to his preoccupation with Caroline and their breakup. He frequently falls into reveries about their days together. Eisenberg uses language that accentuates his dreamlike state: The night had been crowded with Caroline and endless versions of her departuredreamed, reversed in dreams, modified, amended, transfigured, made tender and transcendently beautiful as though it had been an act of sacral purification.