Conversations with Friends: A Novel
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 AND THE TELEGRAPH’S 20 BEST NOVELS OF ALL TIME • 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)
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 AND THE TELEGRAPH’S 20 BEST NOVELS OF ALL TIME • 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)
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
Frances is a 21 year-old university student who writes poetry and then performs her poems with her charismatic ex-girlfriend, Bobbi in Dublin. Bobbi and Frances are pulled into an older crowd when Melissa, a well-known photographer, decides to do an article about them. The novel centers around the relationship between Frances and Nick. Nick is Melissa's 32 year-old husband....
What did it make me think about?
I wrote the following about "Normal People" also written by Sally Rooney. I would write much the same about "Conversations With Friends". "So this novel explores some fascinating questions. One of my favorite sayings over the last several years is, "We are the stories we tell ourselves." No novel captures the essence of this phrase as well as Normal People. Marianne and Connell both make up narratives to explain the behavior of the people around them. Often these narratives are wrong. We also see how isolated individuals can feel- even when they are in relationships. The book also explores how relationships in our formative years can influence our future choices. Fascinating stuff!"
Should I read it?
This was a book that moved a little slowly, but what an interesting concept. I am eternally fascinated by how we all perceive the world so differently.
Quote-
"At the beginning I thought it was playful, maybe kind of sarcastic, like she wasn't his real wife at all. Now I saws it differently. He didn't mind me knowing that he loved someone else, he wanted me to know, but he was horrified by the idea that Melissa would find out about our relationship. It was something he was ashamed of, something he wanted to protect her from. I was sealed up in a certain part of his life that he didn't like to look at or think about when he was with other people."
If you liked this try-
*Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
*Life Drawing by Robin Black
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Heart's invisible Furies by John Boyne
What’s it about?
Frances is a 21 year-old university student who writes poetry and then performs her poems with her charismatic ex-girlfriend, Bobbi in Dublin. Bobbi and Frances are pulled into an older crowd when Melissa, a well-known photographer, decides to do an article about them. The novel centers around the relationship between Frances and Nick. Nick is Melissa's 32 year-old husband....
What did it make me think about?
I wrote the following about "Normal People" also written by Sally Rooney. I would write much the same about "Conversations With Friends". "So this novel explores some fascinating questions. One of my favorite sayings over the last several years is, "We are the stories we tell ourselves." No novel captures the essence of this phrase as well as Normal People. Marianne and Connell both make up narratives to explain the behavior of the people around them. Often these narratives are wrong. We also see how isolated individuals can feel- even when they are in relationships. The book also explores how relationships in our formative years can influence our future choices. Fascinating stuff!"
Should I read it?
This was a book that moved a little slowly, but what an interesting concept. I am eternally fascinated by how we all perceive the world so differently.
Quote-
"At the beginning I thought it was playful, maybe kind of sarcastic, like she wasn't his real wife at all. Now I saws it differently. He didn't mind me knowing that he loved someone else, he wanted me to know, but he was horrified by the idea that Melissa would find out about our relationship. It was something he was ashamed of, something he wanted to protect her from. I was sealed up in a certain part of his life that he didn't like to look at or think about when he was with other people."
If you liked this try-
*Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
*Life Drawing by Robin Black
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Heart's invisible Furies by John Boyne
I dont know how I feel about this book. I do not agree with affairs or any of the beliefs the characters had.
i don’t know…. sally rooney writes amazingly complex and flawed and depersonalized characters, her sex scenes are always so disgustingly sad, and her books always leave me empty- and i love all of those things so much. that being said, i hated the ending so much and it ruined a lot of my other feelings about the book. i wanted the love story between the lines of the “main” love story and yet the main love story pulled through in the end and i hated that like nick is weird and gross :(
also, completely irrelevant, but isn’t it so weird that they keep making screen-adaptations of her books when her books are SO character driven and not plot driven at all?? her writing style doesn’t translate because the meat is in the inner character development yknow?? i think they’re all so bad when they try to be anything but a really good book, im just surprised by it
I always feel engaged in the writing of Sally Rooney. This book was a really interesting lense into what a relationship means whether it be friendship or romantic involvements. I felt it frustrating at time to be apart of Frances’ psyche and her being unable to attain growth and/or be décisive. I felt like the only time she realized she could be if when she was cornered by Bobbi or needed to be vulnerable by Nick. Though I think it was the point to make her frustrating and also force the reader to self reflect about their abilities to confide in people around them. I do enjoy how Sally Rooney’s books dissect the mental processes of her characters and the banter in this book was overall charming. I wish it was a little more conclusive with Frances being with Bobbi and coming into her own rather than continuing the cycle with Nick — but unfortunately I think that is the point — she can only be vulnerable with him and wants what he can give her no matter the circumstance which I do think impedes her from herself.
“Was ‘kindness’ just another term for submission in the face of conflict? These were the kind of things I wrote about in my diary as a teenager: as a feminist I have the right not to love anyone”
A great read. The characters feel so real and I couldn’t put it down.
A great read. The characters feel so real and I couldn’t put it down.
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