some thoughts on conversations with friends by sally rooney
conversations with friends completes my rooney trifecta. i didn’t read them in order of publication, but it doesn’t matter as she’s not writing a series.
i feel like my thoughts on conversations could apply to any of her works, so let’s unpack those.
the books are all best sellers. there are two shows based off normal people and conversations with friends.
the characters are young and feel young. they make choices and behave in ways that will make an older reader sigh sometimes. they are well-rounded characters, but they aren’t always all that likeable. that’s fine, who wants to be likeable these days anyways?
sometimes i worry that the female protagonists are a bit tropey, but not to the point that they aren’t believable, so that’s okay.
the novels are all a little bit spicy. conversation with friends more so than the other two, i would say.
this book, more than the others felt, at least for the first 1/3-1/2 like it was trying really hard. sometimes when the characters are trying to be intellectual, it feels a bit shallow. like throwing out a random name drop, ‘oh you should have read Deleuze” or whatever, which is not unlike the actual academic experience i’ve had, so i mean, fine, but still, if the readers don’t know Deleuze’s work, does the author manage to insult the book and audience targets in one go?
and the real seller for me is the dialogue. sally rooney excels at writing dialogue. it carries me through her books at breakneck speed every time. she has a way of creating scenes that are carried by dialogue and action, but in a clean and understated way. the writing itself doesn’t try to be pretentious. it is wholly readable.
i’ll be passing this book along. i know several people who also read rooney or who are willing to give her a try.
n xx
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