Conversations with Friends (Rooney) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Rooney writes so well of the condition of being a young, gifted but self-destructive woman, both the mentality and physicality of it. She is alert to the invisible bars imprisoning the apparently free. Though herself young – she was born in 1991 – she has already been shortlisted for this year’s Sunday Times EFG short story award. Her hyperarticulate characters may fail to communicate their fragile selves, but Rooney does it for them in a voice distinctively her own.
Guardian (UK)


A novelist to watch: An addictive debut, with nods to Tender is the Night, heralds a bright new talent.
Sunday Times (UK)


A writer of rare confidence, with a lucid, exacting style… [O]ne wonderful aspect of Rooney’s consistently wonderful novel is the fierce clarity with which she examines the self-delusion that so often festers alongside presumed self-knowledge.… But Rooney’s natural power is as a psychological portraitist. She is acute and sophisticated about the workings of innocence; the protagonist of this novel about growing up has no idea just how much of it she has left to do.
New Yorker


Rooney has the gift of imbuing everyday life with a sense of high stakes.… [A] novel of delicious frictions.
Christian Lorentzen - New York Magazine


The self-deceptions of a new generation are at the core of Sally Rooney’s debut, Conversations With Friends, which captures something wonderfully odd-cornered and real in the story of an Irish millennial (10 Best Books of 2017).
Megan O'Grady - Vogue


A very funny, very humanly messy tale of sexual and artistic self-discovery in which every page reveals shrewd emotional insight. Caught between laser-eyed irony and heart-melting sincerity, the book is a masterclass in narrative tone that left me desperate to read whatever Rooney writes next.… ​An addictive, funny and truthful first novel about love and literature​.​
Metro


(Starred review.) [S]earing, insightful…. Rooney lets readers glimpse the rich interior of Frances's life — capturing the tension and excitement of her attraction to Nick…. Rooney's descriptive eye lends beauty and veracity to this complex and vivid story.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [T]races the emotional intricacies that draw people together as well as … complicate these connections. Frances is a tricky narrator, brilliant and analytical yet somehow unknowable to herself and others.… Exceptional. —John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman
Library Journal


(Starred review.) A smart, sexy, realistic portrayal of a woman finding herself.
Booklist


[Rooney] 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.
Kirkus Reviews