Conversations with Friends
Ratings353
Average rating3.6
The audiobook format is really good, and writting style worked for me.
Story was so so for me, I think because I didn't relate much.
I would like to try some other books by Sally.
3.25 stars and i'll tell you why
the writing was exceptionally well in this book, poetic at the right places and hit home on the other but as with the first one, i could not connect with the characters or the story. it didn't fee personal to me, it felt like i am standing somewhere far away and i am being forced to watch the story unfold. i understood frances' pain but i didn't feel it, you know. i felt an ache in my heart but i didn't want to cry for her. i hated that she was lonely but not once did i want to coddle and embrace her. i felt disassociated the entire time i read this.
in truth, it was a lot better than normal people, and that alone deserves a whole star.
this was so beautiful!!! every time i put the book down i could not stop thinking about these characters
This novel was okay. I liked some parts of this book but most of the time I couldn't relate to the story or the characters, so I didn't enjoy it that much.
I didn't like this book at all, but I'm giving it 3 stars on the theory that I'm just not the ideal reader for it and I suppose it succeeds at what it sets out to do. I just am not that interested in the neurotic ramblings of an unlikable 21-year-old. And she's not the only one who's unlikable. I didn't care what happened to the lot of them. To top it all off, although Frances and her girlfriend do talk about a wide range of political and philosophical topics, it's hard to argue that the book is in any way ABOUT those topics. They are window dressing for a modern romance. If you like that sort of thing.
I fell into the story quickly thanks to Rooney's unique style of writing prose, however that wasn't enough to keep me connected with the characters. I found I was intrigued with their fates, but not invested.
Прекрасная, щемящая душу песнь молодости и той богатой событиями жизни, которая в пору молодости происходит внутри каждого. Когда каждое событие - либо счастье в абсолюте, либо неописуемо печально, и все они уникальны, и только с тобой, только здесь, только сейчас. Салли Руни своим исключительным талантом нарисовала идеальный квадрат отношений, который отсекает собой весь внешний мир, сосредотачивая в себе внутренний, и то (или того), кто в него ненароком попадает. Этот квадрат прекрасен своей геометрией, своей изящностью, и печален - своей замкнутостью, потому что ничто не может его разомкнуть, не разрушив его исключительные внутренний мир. Каждая строка этого романа отзывалась во мне тихим стоном, доносящимся из глубины лет: я все это знала, чувствовала, это все со мной было....
This book follows the life of Frances and her friend Bobbie and the relationship they develop with a married couple.
I enjoyed the writing and read the book quickly. Additionally, I liked the inclusion of characters with mental health issues and chronic illnesses.
However, I had the feeling I was going to dislike this book and unfortunately I was not wrong (I don't hate it but I think it was just ok)
I mean, you know it is a Sally Rooney book:
- Portraits a writer as main character;
- The MC will show no emotions, enter into several abusive and toxic relationships, have dispassionate and sometimes non-consensual sex;
- The main character will hurt herself or try to get hurt in order to feel something;
- Include politics in the conversations to convey depth.
I really liked her other books and I was entertained enough with this one but I might have reached my limit of tortured characters, at least for now.
Good god, Frances has to be one of the least likeable main characters I've come across in quite some time. And the ending maddened me.
And yet, Sally Rooney remains Sally Rooney. I adore this woman's writing so much that I happily sat through an eight and a half hour audiobook despite getting more and more annoyed with Frances and how she hurts those around her, and by extension herself, through her needlessly harsh barbed remarks and secret keeping.
Bobbi, on the other hand, I gradually grew to like, even though she is arguably as obnoxious as Frances. I have no idea why this happened.
It takes a while for you to really dive in, probably around a quarter in, at first it veers towards the Young Adult novels, it's a first person 21 yo describing her friends and college life, but then it starts digging in, on what constitutes relationships the power-play and dynamic of a conversation, i like how at times instead of writing the dialogue, the main character describes it as a fight or dance, a very aptly named novel.
I really enjoyed it, i enjoy Rooney's characters and how they interact, it's basically what her novels are, people interacting without any major events happening. Basically life is happening and it's complicated as it is.
Sally Rooney has a way of writing very engagingly. I never once felt bored or like it could be shorter. I like how (for me at least) the writing/ thought process of the characters were realistic and sometimes very overreactive displaying what high of a mountain our temper can climb when we're angry/ sad. I loved the way it ended. Elaborating would have spoiled it. Found some of the tropes repeated in Normal People but I think it fit quite nicely. I definitely recommend reading it.
Cannot decide - probably 2.5 stars?
This book just made me feel kind of “eh”.
Not comparable with Normal People which I adored. This book features characters that often did not feel real, and seem to do everything in their power to feel miserable and misunderstand each other. And then it ends. I could appreciate the build up in the first half but the second half seemed like it had no clear plot line anymore. Sadly, I'm disappointed.
I have half the book to go. I've read three other things whilst trying to slog through this one. I'm not encouraged by the reviews. Like, so far, um...these characters aren't Millennials. Unless this is a period piece, and I just missed that somehow, these people are too young to be Millennial. So...uh, critics, she's not the voice of a generation. I don't know the background of author or novel at this point, and I'm not finished. So we'll see.
I confess, I would have put this book off indefinitely, but Thomas MacGregor was reading it onset, so I HAD to read it then.
So. Finally finished it.
No.
I was toying with reading her next book, but I think I'd be too annoyed. Bobbi, Melissa, and Nick weren't very engaging, and Frances was awful. They could all be awful. But I cannot deal with them being boring, which Frances especially was. This book name-drops academic things to seem scholarly. We're told Frances is a Communist, but she really seems aimless and pretentious. And the whole thing was rather shallow. It kept telling me rather than showing me. Too much passive description is boring.
I will say kudos on non-traditional relationships, but everyone was a dolt. And Nick had no business have an affair with a 21-year old. I will also say kudos for dealing with endometriosis, although Frances' case was handled rather anticlimactically, as were her self-image issues and her cutting.
Frances says she has no personality. She didn't; nor does this book.
Up and down with all my emotions. Not sure I liked it, then so into it. Felt very similar in tone to her other books I've read.