"Fun Friday": Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Book Review)
Synopsis:
English college student Frances has an affair with her author friend Melissa's husband while navigating tumultuous friendship and life circumstances.
Categorical Rankings (/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️):
Pacing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (The structure and language of the book are simplistic and easy to follow, but some sentences are sloppy and the dialogue can be hard to detect with no quotation marks.)
Characters: ⭐️⭐️ (Each of the characters was equally irritating and felt one-dimensional. I could not sympathize with any of them.)
Themes: ⭐️⭐️ Ideas about the complexities of human relationships and how love can distort or validate self-identity were underdeveloped as the characters often diverged into philosophic spiels that overshadowed the reader's interpretive freedom of the story plot itself.
Overall Enjoyment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (The book was mediocre at first, but there was sufficient drama to keep me going until the end.)
Miscellaneous Book Insights (Spoiler Warning):
This was my first time reading a Sally Rooney book, and it may be my last. As much as I enjoyed the aesthetics of the story’s setting, the characters' personalities left a lot to be desired.
As a whole, the four friends the book is centered on complement each other well, and the scenes where they all contribute to lighthearted conversation are organic and compelling; however, individually, each of them is underwritten at best.
Melissa’s job was mostly mentioned in the context of her writing about Bobbie and Frances, which made me question Bobbi’s fascination with her in the first place. (I.e., do you like her because she’s talented or because she likes you?) Additionally, Nick’s mental issues are only explored at the end as an attempt, in my opinion, to mellow down his clear emotional manipulation and severe lack of communication with Frances. His consistent sexual endeavors with this insecure, aloof college student were jarring. Bobbi’s character is an apparent cliche, shameless anarchist who just so happens to be rich and privileged.
When it comes to the main character, Frances, let me just say: I have yet to come close to understanding her. She has an obsession with creating imaginary power imbalances as a self-depreciative mechanism. Especially with Bobbi, Frances seems to worship her at the beginning of the book but decides to capitalize off of her without even asking the girl…smh
The end of the book was one of the most ruinous parts of the story. I was fuming; I am still angry.