Lark Benobi's Reviews > Conversations with Friends

I was bored by this very quickly. I could not get very far. I found it bland.

What a mystery Sally Rooney is to me!

To me as well. Even more mysterious: how has she captured such a large audience?

Canadian Reader wrote: "To me as well. Even more mysterious: how has she captured such a large audience?"

Yeah, me too! Explanations I've seen bandied about are:

1. it's millennial and you need to be one of those to get it
2. it's written for people who have grown up consuming a great deal of visual culture and whose primary cultural influences came from TV and movies--hence the novels' adaptability to these forms.

Hmm. Maybe. One of my groups had a longish conversation about this essay in LitHub that takes a stab and explaining Rooney's success:

https://lithub.com/winning-the-game-y...

I’ve been avoiding this book for years now and your review is the nail in the coffin for me. Thanks for helping me cut my TBR pile.

I think she would bore me, for the reasons stated above. That, and she seems to be "the flavor of the month" in reading circles, and I never do well with those.

After wasting my time on two of her novels, both with unlikable characters in stories about nothing, that go nowhere, I have sworn off Sally Rooney. If this is relatable to a generation what sad, pathetic, vapid lives they have chosen to live.

Geri McB wrote: "sad, pathetic, vapid lives ..."

'vapid' is such a good word.

Love this take on Sally Rooney. Working as a bookseller when she got big and I just DID not understand the appeal. Still don't.

Hanna wrote: "Love this take on Sally Rooney. Working as a bookseller when she got big and I just DID not understand the appeal. Still don't."

I've discovered or rediscovered fairly recently that I really want authors to care deeply about their sentences.

Don't hold back. It's not healthy. Tell us how you really feel. Thanks for the chuckle.

I read 20% of it to see what the hype was about. I can't take anymore. I have to remove it from my currently reading list. I want to finish it because I want to understand what currently appeals to people in this day and age, but I don't think I ever will.

Salmarambles wrote: "I read 20% of it to see what the hype was about. I can't take anymore..."

I wrote this review before I'd learned Sally Rooney was a hugely successful writer, or maybe I wrote it before she even was a hugely successful writer...either way it continues to baffle me how we all respond so differently to the languages of literary fiction.

Or maybe the baffling thing is how somehow so many people connect with so many books, written by strangers, who no doubt have completely different life experiences, and different ways of looking at the world.

I can't read Rooney. Do not care for this style.

Ugh the Rooney !

Jaidee wrote: "Ugh the Rooney !"

Jaidee, this sounds like something that should be yelled from bleachers at some sort of sports event--Rah, Rah, Ugh the Rooney!"

I read the first thirty pages of this last year and they were just horrible. Having also read Normal People, I honestly cannot understand the current obsession with Sally Rooney's writing. I don't know; perhaps it will blow over soon and we can all forget it ever happened. I fear not, however.

Andy wrote: "I read the first thirty pages of this last year and they were just horrible. Having also read Normal People, I honestly cannot understand the current obsession with Sally Rooney's writing. I don't ..."

The Rooney will Rule for another few years unfortunately Andy !

Ugh the Rooney !

I suppose what bothered me with this conversations with friends is how extremely individualistic it is. It's a trend that I see a lot in modern western contemporary writings where the accent is always put on the exaltation of one's being regardless of what one is actually "exalting". Basically, it's the idea of validating one's internal journey for its own sake without any concern for society at large, without any valorization of kindness. For this reason the book seemed a bit flat. But of course, I know I come off as moralizing. The idea that something is extremely valid just because one person thinks it is without any regards for others and without being able to discuss it is baffling to me and that seems to be axis of Conversations with friends.

Salmarambles wrote: "I suppose what bothered me with this conversations with friends is how extremely individualistic it is. ..."

I was thinking about this western cultural bias toward individual self-fulfillment at all costs after I read Lost in the Valley of Death by Harley Rustad.

A few days after reading that book, I saw the film "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which has a lot to say about kindness. I recommend it.

Thank you for the recommendation, i'll add it to my list. I wonder if this bias of self fulfillment is western or simply more a phenomenon of late capitalism.

Salmarambles wrote: "Thank you for the recommendation, i'll add it to my list. I wonder if this bias of self fulfillment is western or simply more a phenomenon of late capitalism."

It's a film produced by the studio A24. I found its joyful celebration of the importance of human kindness surprising, and a little breathtaking.

This is one of my earliest "life is simply too short" Pearl-Rulings at page three. I already hated the proceedings whole and entire and was plotting lethal revenge on the wicked publicist who said "you'll really *get* it!"

All I got was angry.

Richard wrote: "This is one of my earliest "life is simply too short" Pearl-Rulings at page three..."

Richard i love the way you will toss a book fast and without looking back.

Lark wrote: "Richard wrote: "This is one of my earliest "life is simply too short" Pearl-Rulings at page three..."

Richard i love the way you will toss a book fast and without looking back."

I am old. I will not get any younger. I've read A LOT of books and, when the bridge is out and the tracks are uneven, I know it's time to get the hell off the train!