“what is a friend? we would say humorously. What is a conversation?”
After 300+ pages with Rooney’s characters, I’m honestly not sure how to answer those questions. How do you evaluate friendship when your perception is biased by your interpretation of communication? Do conversations you have with yourself even count? These are core elements explored through the life of Frances, a college student in Ireland, as she navigates friendships, relationships, and her own sense of purpose.
For any fellow punctuation-lovers out there, be forewarned – you will not find a single quotation mark in this book. There’s not even a dash or a line break like other authors use (looking at you, Amor Towles). However, the absence of distinct speech allows the characters, events, and thoughts to take on a fluid nature. The detached speech seemed to mirror the emotional processing of Frances, which itself was often detached and out of context.
Rooney tackles a lot in this novel – infidelity, alcoholism, sexual exploration, self-harm, and family conflict to name a few – and a lot of it felt under-developed. In a way, I think that’s what sucks you in. It’s as if you’re dropped right into Frances’ life for a period of time and these heavy aspects crop up as you go along, but aren’t necessarily developed because that’s life and not every complicated aspect gets unpacked and resolved.
I have mixed emotions about the book. I didn’t particularly relate to any of the characters, didn’t really agree with most (if not all) of the decisions being made, and yet somehow I couldn’t put the book down and finished within a week. There’s something about Frances trying to understand her own emotions – stumbling and falling along the way – that I found fascinating, peculiar, and intriguing. Rooney doesn’t shy away from complex and often confusing emotions, and her work is the better for it. I’m not sure I’d say it was a “good” book, but it intrigued me to the point of finishing it in five days, so I’ll let that speak for itself.
Personal rating: 7/10
Recommend? Yeah, I think so
Re-read? No, but I’m looking forward to Rooney’s next book coming soon: Beautiful World, Where Are You
Time: 1:47