Conversations with Friends: A Novel

by Sally Rooney

NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • From the New York Times bestselling author of Normal People . . . “[A] cult-hit . . . [a] sharply realistic comedy of adultery and friendship.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
SALLY ROONEY NAMED TO THE 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 • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vogue, Slate • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 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)

• ISBN10: 0451499069
• ISBN13: 9780451499066
• Publish Date: 7 August 2018 (first published 25 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crown
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451499066

Reviews

[Bianca]

I was like an empty cup, which [he] had emptied out, and now I had to look at what had spilled out of me: all my delusional beliefs about my own value and my pretensions to being a kind of person I wasn’t. While I was full of these things I couldn’t see them. Now that I was nothing, only an empty glass, I could see everything about myself.

We all crave affection from others. But often we don’t allow them to see us for who we truly are. We refuse to show our feelings, because we don’t want to be seen as weak and vulnerable. So instead, we act cold and distant, and in the process, feel miserable and unloved. Not everyone would like this book. The characters are self-absorbed and pretentious, and the relationships are unconventional. But I think that was the point. To show that because of our fear of showing our weaknesses and true selves, we somehow end up being terrible people to others. It’s a book about what it means to be kind and about accepting our vulnerabilities not as flaws, but as parts of what make us who we are.

[clementine]

I definitely understand why people wouldn't enjoy this one. The characters aren't particularly likeable; their political posturing is insufferable. There isn't really any character growth, which could be frustrating. But... I still liked it. It's full of irony and subverted expectations: that these people can talk endlessly about radical politics while still living privileged lives, that despite the novel's overt centering around conversations it's actually about the repeated, sustained failure to communicate, that the sex scenes are a bit pathetic. It's doing a lot, and I find that fascinating, although I can also see how "a novel winkingly doing clever things with smug, annoying characters" could tip to the other side of the scale. The ending is quite limp and I liked that, too, because while these characters all consider themselves intelligent and politically-radical they're actually all wet blankets who are incapable of making good choices. I kind of liked Nick despite everything, though, I must admit.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Conversations with Friends challenges the reader to put aside any prejudice and to keep an open mind. The main character, a 21-year-old university student, is distant, believes she's wholly undeserving of attention or affection, yet fancies herself a great deal more intelligent than most, all while making a series of poor choices.

This psychological exploration of her life takes the reader through ambiguous relationships, politics, religion, familial ties, mental illness, and more. These are driven by seemingly empty conversations bordering on inane that at the same time carry much more weight when you dig deeper. For better or for worse, the plot did suffer, as a result.

Listening to the audiobook helped me connect to the characters more than I would've reading the print version. It allowed me to slip into the conversations, as though I had been present in those moments myself. They reminded me of my own university days, when friends related experiences and thoughts under the stars at 3 a.m. when they knew they'd face no judgment.

Despite the unlikable nature of the characters involved, I found myself drawn into their spheres. They made me think about my own failures and triumphs in ways that only introspective books can. No doubt, this book encompassed the messiness and complications we all face in life, although in the case of Conversations with Friends, much of that could've been avoided with more good sense. Then again, if we were all perfect, what stories would be left to tell?