Conversations with Friends

 Não sei o que pensar desse livro. Não faço ideia se eu gostei ou não.
Os personagens são muito humanos, cheios de qualidades e defeitos, mas ao mesmo tempo é muito difícil de gostar de qualquer um deles.
A escrita é boa e fiquei feliz que o final não foi um conto de fadas idiota. 

Incredibly, there is a not a single sympathetic character in this novel. I don't know, is that the point?

Normal People har fått all oppmerksomheten, men dette er en klart bedre bok, og det tror jeg mange anmeldere mener også. Jeg skrev om Normal People at den på tross av god tekst var noe uforløst. Den samme uforløstheten finner jeg i denne boken, men her er den selve poenget, boken framstår mer helhetlig og stram, og mindre som en ung voksen-roman.
En ting som er helt opplagt, er at Marianne i Normal People og Frances i Conversations er en og samme person og Sally Rooneys alter - ego. Noen beskrev Conversations som den første millennials-romanen, og hvis det stemmer må de ha rett de som sier at millennials-generasjonen er de brutte forventningers generasjon, og dermed den ulykkelige generasjonen.

So much for swearing off books featuring adultery. Four stars in spite of the fact that I now know my repartee will always be inadequate.

As good as advertised

Even though there is something annoying about Sally Rooney's books (I think it reminds me of something someone who doesn't read would love / think is the epitome of art), I get sucked in and like her characters and think she does a good job developing plot lines. I preferred Normal People to this one, but this was a great quick quarantine read.

3,5

👍🏼Pick It: For that familiar, snuggly style that is the phenomenal Sally Rooney
👎🏼Skip It: until you allow three months of Normal People separation and desensitization

I didn't let the back page of Normal People close before putting Conversations With Friends on hold.

And while it was still stuffed with the same Rooney-reminiscent prose, it didn't carry the same emotional pull.

Perhaps I did her a disservice by reading the two novels back to back. Or perhaps what made Normal People the stronger of the two was its multiple POVs. Much of what made Normal People so searing was knowing where both parties stood and their sheer unwillingness to be vulnerable.

On the other hand, Conversations is a one-woman vulnerability spillage and inner rummaging. And when that sole voice is from 21-year old Francis, placing yourself on her carousel of feelings begins to feel like a selfish indulgence rather than possible and resolvable development.

And still, I'd read this book again and again, because Rooney makes it impossible to not feel and feel tied to the what makes us our most-devastatingly human selves.

I started listening to the audiobook and dnf'ed it at about 20%. Just not a book for me.

After reading this book it has solidified a few things about Sally Rooney and her writing style. I think reading this book has helped me see the writing evolution from this book to Normal People. The themes of self harming are prominent in both books and Sally Rooney clearly enjoys writing about damaged women. I found some of the themes raised in this book problematic. Similar to normal people Frances just like Marianne is a character that I am deeply worried about and felt anxious to leave behind. The depression and sadness that Frances copes with alongside physical issues is heartbreaking and while so many people love Sally Rooney's books, I think she creates bleak characters that can make the reading experience very claustrophobic. I have so many things I want to discuss about the themes of mental health and sexuality and monogamy in this book so I will do a review of it on my channel soon. Safe to say I didn't like this as much as normal people and I have a few issues with the book so it's a 3.5 stars for me.

Esperava mto mais desse livro. No fim era algo querendo ter conexão com Gatsby (triângulo com Frances, Nick e Melissa), embora os personagens fossem tds tão insípidos e 2d.

There's a kinship between this book and Elif Batuman's [b:The Idiot 30962053 The Idiot Elif Batuman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474782288s/30962053.jpg 51577226]. Both have young female protagonists who just entered adulthood, and both built heavily on conversations (the face-to-face and the email/messenger kind) to show the frail and complex dynamics in human communication. While Conversations with Friends lacks Batuman's wit and somewhat the likeability of its heroine, it does add a very seductive dose of sexy. Despite the characters not being the easiest to like due to their slightly pretentious vibe, I quickly warmed up to them and was pulled in (3-day read!). A lot of the story deals with the facades they (we) built to hide true emotions and when to let down those shields to let others in. The core relationships in focus are Frances and Nick, who start an affair based on attraction and sex and then very slowly transform it into something more, and Frances and Bobbi, who are long-time-friends (exes? friends? something completely new?) and share a deep love and co-dependency. I also thought the dynamic between Frances and her parents was particularly touching (I loved her mom). I was intrigued by where the story took Nick, it felt like a novel kind of character. One that is somewhat condemned for his passivity (Melissa's angry email!!) yet also showed a self-awareness and acknowledgement that seems to allow for every sort of character. I am still slightly perplexed but also charmed by that last phone conversation and it's outcome. Another surprising detail that I very much appreciated was how Rooney wove endometriosis into the plot.