Frances is bisexual and used to be in a relationship with her bestie, Bobbi. The two perform spoken word poetry in Dublin and their literary circle enters the orbit of Melissa, a thirtysomething writer, and her actor husband Nick. As the group become friendly, Frances starts an affair with Nick. Drama inevitably ensues!
Sally Rooney’s Normal People blew my hair back but unfortunately I can’t say the same for her debut novel, Conversations with Friends. Not that it’s a bad novel but it’s definitely not as powerful or memorable.
Like Normal People, Conversations with Friends has no plot and is about the characters and their relationships. I think part of why Normal People succeeds more is because it’s focused on two people only whereas Conversations with Friends is essentially about four people. We got to know Connell and Marianne more intimately than we do Frances, Bobbi, Nick and Melissa.
And though Frances is the main character – the novel is written from her first person perspective – I still felt like I didn’t really understand who she was. Her bisexuality seemed to be a contrivance rather than convincing – does she let Bobbi sleep with her because she is genuinely attracted to her or because she’s weak and submissive? Because she seems vastly more attracted to Nick and much more affected by his actions towards her. I wasn’t sure what drove her literary ambitions or what she was looking for in her affair with Nick.
The other characters are even more vaguely sketched. Bobbi and Melissa pootle along fairly one-dimensionally throughout while Nick was largely wishy-washy with the occasional attempt at heartfelt emotion that never felt very persuasive. His and Frances’ relationship was a long way from the great romance of Connell and Marianne’s. It seemed like a very shallow situation - Nick likes having it all: a hot thirtysomething wife as well as a twentysomething mistress.
Which makes me wonder what the reader is meant to take away from this book: that these people have gotten themselves into a weird mess that sort of suits them? Intellectuals can be as emotionally immature and/or superficial as anyone else? I’ve no idea – it’s a story that definitely didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
Still, it’s mostly a very well-written book that’s easy to read and the dialogue is by turns cogently pretentious (Frances and Bobbi’s group of friends repeating the eye-rolling academic waffle of gender theory definitely sounded like university students’ preening) and realistically everyday when it needed to be. I like that it is so very slice of life, beginning and ending without dramatic contrivance, which is reflected in the matter-of-fact title, yet also never being boring.
I know I’ve compared this one to Normal People throughout but that’s only because I came to this book from that. Which I’m glad for as I’m not sure I’d want to have kept reading Sally Rooney had the middling Conversations with Friends been my first experience of her writing.
It’s a less compelling and vivid portrayal of young Dubliners in love than Normal People but there’s enough in Conversations with Friends for Sally Rooney fans to enjoy while we wait impatiently for the next one!
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