Conversations with Friends

Starred review from May 15, 2017
In this searing, insightful debut, Rooney offers an unapologetic perspective on the vagaries of relationships. When Frances and Bobbi, former lovers and college students who perform Frances's poetry together, meet Melissa, a famed photographer who wants to do a story about them, the two young women's lives are transformed. Bobbi, the more outgoing and social of the two, has a crush on Melissa; Frances, ever the enigmatic intellectual, is intrigued by Nick, Melissa's glamorous actor husband. From Frances's point of view, readers experience the exhilarating and devastating emotional roller coaster of love, not only in the trajectory of her developing relationship with Nick but also in the layered, complicated relationship between her and Bobbi, as they traverse the rocky road from lovers to friends and back again and transition to the world of adulthood. Rooney lets readers glimpse the rich interior of Frances's lifeâcapturing the tension and excitement of her attraction to Nick, how she justifies her feelings and treatment of the people around her, and how she is shaped by the separation of her understanding mother and her alcoholic father. Here, too, is a treatise on married life, the impact of infidelity, the ramifications of one's actions, and how the person one chooses to be with can impact one's individuality. Throughout, Rooney's descriptive eye lends beauty and veracity to this complex and vivid story.

May 1, 2017
The story of the entangled affairs of a group of exceedingly smart and self-possessed creative types.Frances, an aloof and intelligent 21-year-old living in Dublin, is an aspiring poet and communist. She performs her spoken-word pieces with her best friend and ex-lover, Bobbi, who is equally intellectual but gregarious where Frances is shy and composed where Frances is awkward. When Melissa, a notable writer and photographer, approaches the pair to offer to do a profile of them, they accept excitedly. While Bobbi is taken with Melissa, Frances becomes infatuated by her life--her success, her beautiful home, her actor husband, Nick. Nick is handsome and mysterious and, it turns out, returns Frances' attraction. Although he can sometimes be withholding of his affection (he struggles with depression), they begin a passionate affair. Frances and Nick's relationship makes difficult the already tense (for its intensity) relationship between Frances and Bobbi. In the midst of this complicated dynamic, Frances is also managing endometriosis and neglectful parents--an abusive, alcoholic father and complicit mother. As a narrator, Frances describes all these complex fragments in an ethereal and thoughtful but self-loathing way. Rooney captures the mood and voice of contemporary women and their interpersonal connections and concerns without being remotely predictable. In her debut novel, she deftly illustrates psychology's first lesson: that everyone is doomed to repeat their patterns. A clever and current book about a complicated woman and her romantic relationships.

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May 1, 2017

DEBUT Best friends who were formerly a couple, Frances and Bobbi attend university and perform spoken-word pieces in Dublin. Melissa chronicles the urban Irish arts scene as an established photojournalist and wants to cover these talented young women and their work. As Melissa's social circle closes around the younger women, Frances initiates an affair with Melissa's sickly husband, Nick. This relationship, as well as Frances's burgeoning literary reputation, attenuates the bonds among everyone involved. Ultimately, Frances's art drives Bobbi away, even as Nick's improving health and intimacy with his wife push Frances to the brink of mental and physical disaster. By book's end, everyone has achieved a precarious equilibrium, though readers are left to wonder if it can last. Narrated by Frances, Rooney's satisfying first novel artfully traces the emotional intricacies that draw people together as well as the social vicissitudes that complicate these connections. Frances is a tricky narrator, brilliant and analytical yet somehow unknowable to herself and others. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Belinda McKeon's Tender and Caitriona Lally's Eggshells will enjoy this exceptional debut. [See Prepub Alert, 2/13/17.]--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017

Cool, collected Frances and gorgeous Bobbi capture the attention of journalist Melissa when they perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin. But Frances's dangerous flirtation with Melissa's louche actor husband brings trouble. Bought by Faber UK in a seven-way auction at the London Book Fair; Hogarth preempted U.S. rights.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.