I am shocked at how confused Conversation with Friends left me - Sally Rooney

After reading Normal People and loving it I knew that the next step was to read Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I thought it would be a similar style of story and similar characters just a different plot. However, Rooney’s debut novel left me confused. The style is similar but, something that I loved from Normal People was the third person narration and following each character through time and lives. She uses first-person narration in Conversation with Friends meaning we get closer to Frances, our main protagonist. Frances is weird, special but has a complex deep mind. Her thoughts and feelings left me confused and hence the title.

The word confused might sound negative but it is a compliment to the text. As with normal people, Sally Rooney has me starring at the ceiling at 3 am with no other reason than complete and utter awe. Frances is an interesting character to me, I hated her, for most of the star but, the way she is written brings my love to her character. She sees herself as an almost feelingless and inhuman person, but she thinks I could see her depth and complexity. When she is hurt she doesn’t display it the same way as Bobbi or Nick do. She is way more reserved and left outspoken but we can see how deep her trauma goes into. Even though Frances to me is someone I would not like to be friends with, on paper, she is perfect. Sally Rooney has created an extremely complex character and this is enhanced by the lack of communication Frances shares. Even in her mind, she does not share much and this might be for the lack of emotion but, for the lack of understanding of these basic feelings that she has. This is where her intricacy starts.

Nick is the love interest. I believe this character was meant to be the complex character that Frances is. He is supposed to be this two-faced character but, I see him like a meaningless almost dumb character that I hate. Yes, Frances is also part of this relationship but, the way Nick handles it with Melissa, his wife, is incredibly dull. I don’t like his character and there is no complexity behind this.

I missed a better story for Bobbi. She is incredible and I believe the book would have been better if Bobbi’s story and personality could have been explored further. Bobbi is a fun character. The fresh side of the depressing life that Frances is. She knows how to talk and how to communicate. I don’t believe that the book would have been better with Bobbi as the main character as Frances brings the complexity that makes Sally Rooney such a good character builder. Bobbi however could have been further developed into Frances story.

We can gather that Sally Rooney is how her stories are not plot-based but rather character-based. We do not learn from the story and we do not care about the path the story takes to develop. we rather care about how these characters grow and develop. We care about the thoughts these characters go through and what their development is. That’s why this book is so good. I think this book should be read by any lover of books.