I'm late to this book - Sally Rooney's first novel. She has gone on to be a big name, but this was my first foray into her works.
I was impressed. Lucid writing and a strong structure to the narrative contribute to a very enjoyable read. Rooney was young when she wrote this, and her lead character is young and coming of age, but this aging grandfather never felt out of place reading her tale :) ( )

Frances is a student at Trinity College Dublin in this coming of age novel of friendship and betrayal. She and her ex-girlfriend Bobbi, a duo of spoken-word performances, become entangled with an older (30-ish) couple Melissa, a journalist, and Nick, an actor. Frances and Nick, in particular, reveal family traumas and in Frances's case, a pattern of self-harm. The friendships, love relationships and betrayals circle around the shifting pairs of friends as Frances struggles to find her way.

The style is matter-of-fact, the dialog and text messages revealing emotional avoidance and distancing, the characters frequently unlikable. But the writing is powerful, and the story is as compelling as a train wreck. ( )

I'm still deciding how I feel about this book. In the beginning, I was uninterested and found myself thinking, "Why am I reading this book?". Then, I found myself enjoying it, wondering about the characters and considering their thoughts and ideas, and trying to decide how I felt about each of them. Towards the end, I grew impatient and frustrated with them, annoyed with their decisions. Maybe that's what this book is really about. Deciding. ( )

With the release of Sally Rooney’s latest novel Intermezzo last week (complete with midnight book parties, themed goodies and quizzes in bookshops around the world), I released that I still hadn’t read her debut novel. While I enjoyed Normal People, there were a LOT of intense emotions and I’ve also had quite a fill of ‘sad girl’ novels (such as Diana Reid, Naoise Dolan, Madeleine Gray, Daisy Buchanan, Amy Taylor – all great authors who write about young women). However, I judged Conversations with Friends wrongly. It’s an incredible novel (debut or otherwise) that gets the balance of emotions and reality just right without getting headache-inducingly messy.

The story is told through the eyes of Frances, an Irish university student who does spoken word with her ex-girlfriend Bobbi. One night, a journalist asks to do an interview with them and they are introduced into her world. Melissa and her husband Nick, an actor, live in an actual house and have glamourous parties. They seem much richer both in the financial way and in life itself, offering the young women a glimpse into a more exciting world. Bobbi and Melissa become friends, and Nick and Frances…well, it’s complicated. Is it just sex? A relationship that’s doomed? Or something else? The story focuses around their relationship, which is awkward as nobody-but-nearly-everybody knows and have their own judgements. Frances also has some issues with family and her own wellness, as does Nick. It’s the story of people tiptoeing around each other, having it out and then readjusting and not knowing what you really want. You could say nothing much happens, and you’d be right. But it would also be right to say Frances has a lot going on. Ultimately the novel is perfectly titled – there are a lot of conversations with friends (or sort-of friends).

Are the characters likeable? Maybe not, but they are definitely relatable and fascinating which is what brought me back to read more. The characters are also willing to expose themselves to the reader, and each other which is engrossing. There isn’t the level of angst that Normal People had, which is fine by me. It seems a more mature, assured story (although Marianne from Normal People may make an appearance, although the internet tells me it’s not confirmed to be her). The prose is great, really drawing the reader into Frances’ innermost thoughts, positive and negative. The dialogue between characters is also authentic (although if you like your dialogue to be in quotation marks, this is not the book for you). The whole story had a good rhythm and pace, which is interesting to me as it’s more of a character driven novel. I didn’t feel like Frances and Nick had to ‘hurry up’ and get back together/split up.

On the back of reading this novel, I went and bought Sally Rooney’s two other novels. I think that shows how much I enjoyed it (or I just want to be part of the next book hype).

http://samstilreading.wordpress.com ( )

The way that Salley Rooney writes makes me feel so upset even if the content isn’t necessarily upsetting. Everything feels so real and matter of fact that I constantly feel torn up. Did this book hurt me in an alarming fashion? Yes. Would I say it’s probably one of the best books I’ve ever read? Also yes. The reality of this book made me feel unreal and I don’t know how to move on from that. ( )