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A review by joshuaedwardcrowe
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
How many fearfully avoidant people does it take to break up a marriage? Four clearly isnt enough.
This book was nothing if not emotionally paralysing. Rooney's work continues to be weak in having a real story -- the narrative often only progresses for the sake of the characters next hurdle.
Frances is a fairly self-entitled main character, so emotionally withdrawn it borderlines on a narcissistic pattern. Rooney sprawls across each page in monotone first-person dialect and it becomes draining fascinatingly quickly, yet somehow, you become sucked into something you want to hate. Watching a main character make incredibly destructive decisions leaves you dragging your feet through eachc chapter wondering 'what the fuck are you doing, Frances?' There's little insight into how Frances became this way, and whenever the narrative gives you a glimmer of direction in the mess that is a range of 'complicated characters'', another curve ball comes your way and Frances ends up right where she started.
I want to give credit to Rooney for the way she depicts such a vacuum of the coming of age emotional landscape that she creates. Many a time while reading this, I resonated with Frances' pain an enormous amount -- her relationship with her feelings is frail and she spends lots of time in compulsive discovery of their meanings -- this is a journey I myself have gone on. I was placing my faith in Rooney exploring Frances' discovery of what relieves her emotional pain and a transition away from the coping mechanisms she currently works with, but it never came.
I'm not sure what journey I went on with this story. I just feel I came out with plenty of fatigue and a lack of interest in Rooney's further work. Normal People is a story that I can get on board with: a story that explores its characters unfaltered weakness and gives them a solid, resounding arc, and development along the way. You can't really spoil the ending of this book, because the ending is on the back. The front is the end. That's almost as vapid as Bobbi is.
Reading this book is a trap. You think you want to read it, but I can promise you, you really dont
This book was nothing if not emotionally paralysing. Rooney's work continues to be weak in having a real story -- the narrative often only progresses for the sake of the characters next hurdle.
Frances is a fairly self-entitled main character, so emotionally withdrawn it borderlines on a narcissistic pattern. Rooney sprawls across each page in monotone first-person dialect and it becomes draining fascinatingly quickly, yet somehow, you become sucked into something you want to hate. Watching a main character make incredibly destructive decisions leaves you dragging your feet through eachc chapter wondering 'what the fuck are you doing, Frances?' There's little insight into how Frances became this way, and whenever the narrative gives you a glimmer of direction in the mess that is a range of 'complicated characters'', another curve ball comes your way and Frances ends up right where she started.
I want to give credit to Rooney for the way she depicts such a vacuum of the coming of age emotional landscape that she creates. Many a time while reading this, I resonated with Frances' pain an enormous amount -- her relationship with her feelings is frail and she spends lots of time in compulsive discovery of their meanings -- this is a journey I myself have gone on. I was placing my faith in Rooney exploring Frances' discovery of what relieves her emotional pain and a transition away from the coping mechanisms she currently works with, but it never came.
I'm not sure what journey I went on with this story. I just feel I came out with plenty of fatigue and a lack of interest in Rooney's further work. Normal People is a story that I can get on board with: a story that explores its characters unfaltered weakness and gives them a solid, resounding arc, and development along the way. You can't really spoil the ending of this book, because the ending is on the back. The front is the end. That's almost as vapid as Bobbi is.
Reading this book is a trap. You think you want to read it, but I can promise you, you really dont
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Eating disorder