Book review

Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

This book has caused arguments at home.

I read it on my kindle and then informed my husband we would be watching the TV series once I was done. He then moaned that he didn’t want to watch an adaptation before reading the book, so he borrowed it from my Kindle library once I was finished.

A few days later, the complaints began.

• “I’m not getting into it”
• “She’s annoying me”
• “This is going nowhere”

I want to preface these gripes with the fact he studied literature at Uni and reads much more than I.

Fortunately, after a day or so he climbed down off his high horse and admitted that he was getting into it.

I thought the book was exactly what I expected it to be. After having read Normal People (twice in fact), I was prepared for a storyline that is objectively boring, characters who can be frustrating and an ending that for most would be anticlimactic. But isn’t that precisely why Sally Rooney’s work appeals to many – the relatability? The fact that her stories aren’t runaway romances, fantastical make believe or unrealistic thrillers.

Whilst I was reading Conversations with Friends on holiday, by the pool, a friend of mine asked what I was reading. I told him and his reaction was a blasé “Sounds boring.” No comeback to that, because I couldn’t argue.

It is about two girls who have form a relationship with an older married couple.

I can totally agree with my husband, the book does take a while to get into – I’d say after reading 30%. What starts as irritation at the characters and context actually evolves into intrigue. Like watching a couple argue in public, you shouldn’t look but you can’t not!

Once my husband had finished, his anger came to surface,

• “there’s no character development”
• “nothing happens”
• “They are so annoying”

BUT THAT’S THE POINT! Was my answer. Everything about Normal People and Conversations with Friends is banal! It’s a snapshot into someone else’s moment in time. As the reader you feel like you are infringing on someone else’s story rather than be an active participant on some rollercoaster novel.

I enjoyed it but I won’t read it again.