“[A] cult-hit . . . [a] sharply realistic comedy of adultery and friendship.”—Entertainment Weekly SALLY ROONEY NAMED TO THE 2019 TIME 100 NEXT LIST • WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK) YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD • ONE OF BUZZFEED’S BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE AND SLATE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED AND ELLEFrances is a … THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED AND ELLE
Frances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, they meet a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into her world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and handsome husband, Nick. But however amusing Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it begins to give way to a strange—and then painful—intimacy.
Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth, and the messy edges of female friendship.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
“Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they’re figuring out how to be adults.”—Celeste Ng, “Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast”
“The dialogue is superb, as are the insights about communicating in the age of electronic devices. Rooney has a magical ability to write scenes of such verisimilitude that even when little happens they’re suspenseful.”—Curtis Sittenfeld, The Week
“Rooney has the gift of imbuing everyday life with a sense of high stakes . . . a novel of delicious frictions.”—New York
“A writer of rare confidence, with a lucid, exacting style . . . One wonderful aspect of Rooney’s consistently wonderful novel is the fierce clarity with which she examines the self-delusion that so often festers alongside presumed self-knowledge. . . . But Rooney’s natural power is as a psychological portraitist. She is acute and sophisticated about the workings of innocence; the protagonist of this novel about growing up has no idea just how much of it she has left to do.”—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker
“This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I’m not alone.”—Sarah Jessica Parker (Instagram)
more
Rooney’s prose is unique, fresh, entertaining, and perceptive. She understands and lays bare the subtleties of human behavior, the motivations and self-delusion driving it. This book is for any reader who enjoys multi-layered characters, the baffling complexities of interpersonal relationships, and the intricacies of intellectual word play (some of it hilarious!) If you are in your twenties or early thirties, a lot will ring true; if you are older, this book will bring you back, and perhaps make you happy to be well beyond that stage.
Sally Rooney is an evocative, poetic writer, and that’s enough reason to read this book. It follows a group of young people through their friendships and sexual experiments. There’s an emphasis, popular today, on relativistic love. People tend to think such ideas are new, but, of course, there was quite a bit of relativistic, don’t-label-me love back in the 1970s when I was young. The relationships in this book reminded me of those times. (Of course, in the mainstream, gay and relativistic relationships were shunned, and they are much more accepted today.) I think the young people in this book are very self-important and self-involved, but, then, isn’t that how it is to be in your 20s and early 30s — before life gets real? This is a worthy read if you are young, and a fun reminder of what it is like to be young and full of ideas. Rooney uses email and text messaging in a very natural way — and a very creative way. As for the attitudes of these four people to each other, I’ve outgrown the notion that I must be inventive and original in my relationships. For me, such experiments mostly failed, and I came to believe that my friendships and love relationships were sacred and not to be toyed with using intellectual arguments and they are not relative to anything but the deep respect I need to have for the people who are dear to me. But that doesn’t take away from the fun of this book.
Finally read this and loved it as much as Normal People! Definitely would recommend
I’ve read Normal People and had heard that Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends was even better. I wasn’t bowled over by Normal People although I like it well enough. See my earlier review. ( http://sckarakaltsas.com/2019/12/14/book-review-normal-people-by-sally-rooney/.) But I was intrigued about this young author.
The story is about two friends who become caught up in the world of a married couple. Twenty-one-year-old student Frances is a highly intelligent aspiring writer. Together with her best friend Bobbi they perform spoken word poetry where they meet Melissa a journalist. They’re quickly drawn into Melissa’s well-to-do circle and are invited to her home where they meet Nick, her handsome actor husband. Here Frances is faced with the dilemmas of class as well as the awkward challenges of her new and old relationships.
This is a beautifully written book, with no quotation marks, so beware. It’s not descriptive or flowery in its language and there is probably more tell than show. It seems almost simplistic in style yet is cleverly crafted.
Frances is a complex character who struggles to find her emotional self and almost appears aloof to everything that goes on around her. She is probably not the sort of person I would like yet I’d admired her intelligence and her ideals. I also felt for her in her relationship with Nick who seemed quite vacuous.
It’s not the sort of book I would normally read but I did enjoy it and thought it was it was slightly better than Normal People.
A beautifully-written story about the complications of love and relationships in the real world.
After falling deep down the rabbit hole of the BBC adaptation of Normal People last week and loving it just as much as I’d loved the book, I decided it was high time I picked up Sally Rooney’s other novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this one as well! It had Rooney’s characteristic sharply observed characters and achingly real depictions of passionate youthful love and emotion, though in this case it was applied to an even messier set of relationships than the ones you find in Normal People! But that only made it more compelling, I devoured this in a day and couldn’t put it down. And the ending! Wow! It totally took me by surprise and hit me like a train, masterfully done. I can’t wait until there’s a new Sally Rooney book to read
I love Sally Rooney, she creates compelling and human characters – like those on this book
Sally Rooney is a great stylist, but I found the characters tiresome.
Very damaged people
Disappointing. Felt like I had a tooth ache whenever I picked it up. May be interesting for 30-35 year olds and below but not for me. Reminded me of my neurotic sorting out of relationships in my teens and early twenties. But I persisted and finished this book.
I had a hard time engaging with this book. Honestly, gave up on it a third of the way in. I was annoyed by the characters,and couldn’t even force myself to read it. I hate leaving a book unfinished.
I didn’t finish it.
This is the type of book I read so often when I was in my twenties. These are all people who can’t seem to grow up and want things both ways. No resolution in sight by the end of the book.
Strong literary writing. Well-developed and believable characters, plot, scenes, dialogue. I inhabited their world from first page to last, with a surprising yet understandable twist at the end.
I did not like this story.
My son was reading this book so I thought I’d read it too, for discussion. It’s a great inisght into young minds and the characters were accessible, interesting and well drawn. I enjoyed it.
Rooney’s prose is an incredible balance of blunt clarity and searingly efficient descriptive language. This story made me feel close to characters who don’t seem to know how to be close with themselves, and from a storytelling standpoint, I find that remarkable. I wish Melissa were more fleshed out, even Bobbi as well. Had they been teased out and their role in Frances’ and Nick’s lives, this would be a five-star read for me. I love the ambiguous ending because it feels consistent with Frances and Nick particularly. I’m hooked on Rooney’s voice, her pacing and personal exploration in her characters. I’ll definitely be reading more of her.
Pretty much perfect. I’m normally very dissatisfied with endings, but Ms Rooney nails it
I read this with enthusiasm after reading Rooney’s other book ‘Normal People’ and absolutely loving it.
‘Conversations with Friends’ is a good book by writer who is a fresh new voice. I really enjoyed her prose style and the nuanced complexity of the relationships being portrayed. However, I found the storyline less compelling than I had hoped. I would still recommend this book.
This book touched me. So delicate and nuanced. I didn’t necessarily like the characters, but I worried about them. The author showed them warts and all, yet I feel she loved them, too. I guess you could say this story got under my skin. It made me want to improve my own writing.
I will definitely read more work by Sally Rooney, a true talent.