Published in 2017, Conversations with Friends is Sally Rooney’s debut novel. Since then her popularity has steadily climbed, with her widely successful novel and series Normal People. There are some repeating themes that come up in Rooney’s work. Most notably: youthful, flawed romance and individuals that carry themselves through a lot of personal pain, loss and conflicted relationships. This is true for both Normal People and Conversations with Friends.
First Impressions
Reading Conversations with Friends, I was immediately taken with Rooney’s use of language and her delicately poetic way of describing things. Her characters are interesting and complex, too. Bobbi serves as the strong-headed feminist with disdain for capitalism and other systems of oppression. Frances is the detached, intellectual poet, with a sort of blank internal landscape creating her passivity. Both these characters become much more interesting and conflicted the further into the book you get. I think this way of showing people who are young, discovering who they are, but so susceptible to outside forces is quite important and honest.
Relationship Questions: Who Decides What is Love and What is Committment?
Relationship dynamics and relationships themselves are some of the meaningful themes in this book. The dance of monogamy and polyamory, or what constitutes what and where lines are drawn frames the entire thing. However, it doesn’t necessarily change what Conversations with Friends is doing. The book is more about lack of communication than actually depicting some kind of unbiased view on polyamory or monogamy. It’s about what people expect from themselves and others, sometimes without ever telling them.
Without wanting to give away all of the things that make this book worth reading, I think diving in is worth it for those of us with a love of the English language and with a deep appreciation for flawed and deeply pained characters.
Rating: 3/5
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