A review of Sally Rooney’s Conversation with Friends.
Sally Rooney is a writer who has captured the essence of being a young person in our increasingly crazy world. I have never read anything like Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. Her names have been one of those that have been plastered all over book stores, Amazon and book blogs I follow. This book has made me realised that I do not read many books written in the first-person at all. The book is extremely personal, touching on mental health, generation z mentality, politics, philosophy and the general messed up way society has managed to reveal itself to the young generation. I reckon this review will not have any spoilers as I eagerly want you all to read it.
I will say though the book now has raised more than one alarm bells in how my daughters will grow up and how I want to address their growing curiously in sexuality and how young women are taken advantage off unnecessarily. More than often, you will find the unhealthy portray of sexuality in young women and that gives me shivers knowing my daughters will have to experience this at some point in life. I know we cannot protect them from everything but to an extent, I would like my eldest to read this book when she’s a teenager. I imagine that after she reads it we could have a candid conversation about her thoughts and worries relating to the topics covered in the story.
The cleverly split parts in the book were great. The first part was full of confidence and secrecy while the second was full-on anxiety and insecurities. It is as if the protagonist went through an entirely life-changing experience in the first part and decided to embark on a revelation in the next. The exact moment where the book went from one part to the next, I felt myself actually holding my breath. That’s unusual for me. I only ever do that when reading thrillers which actually is not often anymore seeing as for the last few years I have been more drawn to biographies and crime novels.
Being a writer myself, I have realised how my own writing can be read as. You would think that writing in the first-person, it would sound more like a journal rather than a novel. It started off making me feel that way but then as things got more intense, the descriptions became increasingly detailed. The whole mood of the story changed with the protagonist’s physical condition.
This book is a pleasant surprise for me. On one side, I liked the way it was written and on another hand, I feel like I enjoy the way I read it. I’m not sure if that makes any sense. I read books in different voices even when it is in my head. (most of the time) I find myself exclaim when I read certain sentences. While I felt sympathetic to Frances, I sort of realised certain stupid mistakes I had made in my life when I was a younger more naive of myself. I always preach that I do not regret anything in life as I feel I have learnt from them and made me the person I am today. If you are a close friend of mine, you will read this and think, wow, she’s eating her own words, unbelievable! Yes, I feel the same way you do right now while writing this review of a wonderful piece of literary work.
