Book #28: Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a book I was keen to read since I read Sally Rooney's "Normal People".
At the start, the narrator, bi-sexual Frances, is living with her ex-girlfriend Bobbi; they meet Nick and his wife Melissa, and gradually Frances and Nick embark on an affair.
I wasn't sure about this book at first, as the plot seemed to go very slowly. Frances and Nick were hardly discrete about their affair, choosing to occasionally have sex in the house Nick was sharing with Melissa, and I wondered if the characters' behaviour was in any way realistic. It also felt at first that some of the dialogue was a bit naff.
I started to get more into the book in the second half though; on the surface of things, this book could be seen as an attempt to glorify the concept of having an affair, but it seemed to be more of a commentary on human nature, and about how a lot of people just won't do what's right for them, including staying in a potentially toxic relationship. Also, I noticed was that while Nick in particular didn't seem like the completely loathsome character that I'd expected him to do, and also that at times Melissa seemed downright dislikeable.
I kept going with this book, mostly because it wasn't always obvious where the plot was going, so the narrative threw in a number of plot twists that I wasn't expecting. This wasn't overall up to the quality of "Normal People" but still worth a read.
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