Conversations with Friends: A Novel

I have to mention that I am a Sally Rooney fan who loved her book "Normal People." So this is the template by which I will judge this and future novels she publishes. So "Conversations with Friends" is like "Normal People" times five. Lots of British college kids, learning about life one mistake at a time. Now, just to make this novel really fun to read, the only punctuation marks used throughout are the period and the comma and capitalization. Now think about that. Two people are having a conversation, but there is no way to differentiate between their spoken words and the narration other than the readers' familuration with the English language. It made the book very interesting to read because you also had to intuit everyone's feelings as well from the word salad of prose. Now, I know that most readers will read my comments and think that I didn't like the book, but I very much liked this book and am recommending it. I just wanted you to know what reading delights await you.

You can count on books that contain affairs to have fewer stars because people like to act all high and mighty. Truth is, people cheat. People are selfish and needy and have crappy attachment issues that trump their commitment to others. And truth is, cheating makes for good content.

I loved the characters and their nuanced personalities. The writing was beautiful. The author has a gift for creative writing, and explaining life in a way that speaks to you. A few of my favorite quotes:

“Standing in his house was like watching someone familiar smile at me, but with missing teeth.”

“ After that I put some cold water on my face and dried it, the same face I had always had, the one I would have until I died.”

“Gradually the waiting began to feel less like waiting and more like this was simply what life was: the distracting tasks undertaken while the thing you are waiting for continues not to happen.“

Would absolutely recommend this book.

I've been wanting to read more literary fiction by my peers, and my curiosity was piqued when I heard an interview with Sally Rooney while driving around in my home state of Massachusetts, and then I met her classmate later in Dublin, who gave me "Mr. Salary", which was sharp and excellent. (Almost as perfect as short stories can get. WOW.) So I felt driven to buy her novel.

I don't always have staying power with books, but I read this one from cover to cover in a few days. I didn't agree with Frances' choice in the end, and I loved the fact that I felt invested enough to care. I wanted to go with her through to "The End". The dialogue was wonderful, and I ate up the book -- not just because of the chemistry generated between the characters, but because on a mechanical level I wanted to study "how the author did what she did" -- so many scenes were pitched just right, compelling, and exquisite. The storyline stays wonderfully tight and on-point, and follows a logical sequence, with each emotional development building on the last. At about 2/3rds of the way through, the protagonist reaches an acute level of misery, and I admittedly found it a bit harder to read. It was hard on an emotional level (which is great -- no reason the author shouldn't put us through that, if it's the truth!), but my own tiniest criticism is that I think the storytelling could have dialed back on the statements of misery. The first 2/3rds is so beautifully stark that the way Frances' breakdown is told feels like a shift in diction. (But then again, weren't we all agonized and angsty in our early 20's? In that sense, Sally hit the right note, one that most of us shy/squirm away from!!)

Brilliant book, and I felt viscerally and sensually within the narrative the entire time (deeply cringing when I read Melissa's long email, as if it was directed at me... or watching Frances wearing the sports coat, looking like a "candle"... etc. etc.) I will read it / flip through it again just to study it more. Loved how it was both physical and highly cerebral, and adored the intimate and frank look at women's sexuality and health as well. Incredible accomplishment, and I am excited to see what she writes next!!

I first fell in love with Sally Rooney’s style in her novel, Normal People, and have since returned to her previous work. As this is her first book, it is true to her style but the story is not as strong as that in Normal People but it does keep you captivated and is still a lovely quick read. Having now read all 3 of her novels I would rank them 1- Normal People, 2- Conversation with friends 3- Beautiful world, where are you

I also watched the Hulu series based on this novel and have to say I preferred the book. Mr Taylor Swift is quite wonderful as Nick Conway but I did not love the casting/direction otherwise - definitely glad I read the novel first and knew of Frances’ internal monologue/feelings before watching the series.

Frances is 21 years old, works at a job she is not at all engaged with and almost would seem to prefer to not have, goes to college, and performs her spoken word poetry with her best friend/ex-girlfriend Bobbi at night. The latter has gotten enough attention to draw into their orbit Melissa, a 30something writer and photographer who wants to profile them, and her husband Nick, a working actor who has found only minor success. While Melissa and Bobbi hit it off, Frances and Nick develop a connection of their own and it’s not too long before they wind up in bed together. This doesn’t feel like a spoiler, as it is very obvious that it’s going to end up there. This obviously has reverberations for Frances’s relationships with both Bobbi and Melissa. Sally Rooney is one of those authors that has a devoted following, so I was really excited to start reading her work with this, her debut novel. But if I’m being honest, I didn’t really understand the fuss. This is a character book, which I’m inclined to like, but without a character I found compelling. Frances is a frustrating protagonist. Not because she’s aimless or sleeps with someone else’s husband or is trying to figure out who she is, but because she’s just not very interesting while she’s doing all of that. I didn’t find her unlikeable, I just found her boring. I found myself wondering why and even if I was supposed to care about her or her connections with Nick, Bobbi, and Melissa. I had a hard time understanding how a person seemingly so empty and detached could write poetry that was engaging enough to get anyone’s attention. What kept my interest was the quality of the prose. Rooney’s writing is subtle, and she has a real knack for dialogue and descriptions. Her words are clearly deliberately chosen but she never slides into flowery language. Her use of language alone makes me want to read her other books, but I hope they’re better than this one.

Overall this book was okay. I really enjoyed some of Frances' observations and was interested in her background (especially her relationship with her parents) but I strongly disliked the romance element. In a previous review for Normal People (which I really enjoyed and revisit frequently) I noted that when I read the book as a romance, I walked away disappointed, but when I read the book as a social commentary, I found a lot of respect for the characters and the unique intricacies of their relationships that made the story far more engaging and rewarding. When it comes to Conversations with Friends however, even when I tried to put aside the romance element of the story, I just couldn't keep myself from judging the characters and cringing at the entire affair. I don't think that I was supposed to be rooting for them or enjoying the relationship, like, I get that it is a complicated and borderline problematic yet realistically portrayed relationship, but unlike Connell and Marianne in Normal People, I just couldn't relate and/or understand what was going on w Nick and Frances.

As a reader, I've learned hyper-realistic and incredibly intimate stories about difficult and uncomfortable relationships (particularly where there is a significant difference age and/or power between the characters) are just not my cup of tea. Overall, unlike some books of this nature that I've read in the past, I just didn't see the social commentary or the point that Sally Rooney was trying to make with these characters. It's entirely possible that I'm not meant to ~get it~ or that somebody else would understand this story a lot better than me. Overall, I may pick this book up again and I recommend giving it a go if you like stories like "Luster" by Raven Leilani or "The Seas" by Samantha Hunt, but it wasn't much of an enjoyable read for me.