Book Review of Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
This must be autobiographical I thought while reading Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney. It rings so true - from the very human characters - university student Frances, Nick, the handsome actor she has an affair with, Melissa, his intimidatingly brilliant wife, and Bobbie, Frances’ old girlfriend and best friend - to the authentic conversations that are had in person, text and via email. I looked at the author’s bio on the back cover. Rooney has the pale skinned, waif-like brunette looks of the protagonist Frances. This must be autobiographical I thought again. Conversations With Friends was Rooney’s debut novel published at the age of 26 in 2017. Like Frances, Rooney attended Trinity College as an English student similarly inhabiting the literary, arts and social circles of that world. In an article by Isobel Thompson in Vogue magazine, Rooney says she also had to navigate how to become socially acceptable: “ And that certainly informed the novel. Th...
