Before we properly get going with this review, I'm just going to put it out there that I'm not the *biggest* fan of literary realism. It's one of those genres that I want to love, but every time I dip into it I'm reminded of the fact that reading is a form of escapism for me, and I don't want to read to explore the mundanity of every day life like my own.
Conversations with Friends is a story about Frances and her best friend/ex-girlfriend Bobbi, who become friends with a married couple called Nick and Melissa. The four live in Dublin, and the boundaries of friendship are blurred when Frances and Nick begin to have an affair. The whole book sits around these boundaries of friendship - Frances and Bobbi were lovers but now live together platonically, Bobbi's friendship with Melissa is based on adoration of her work, Frances and Nick aren't 'together' - it's a friends with benefits situation.
At the same time, the author also looks at the boundaries of conversation. There are no speech marks in the text, so written communication between the characters, verbal communication and the normal narrative are not made distinct from one another.
I think the book is done very cleverly as an exploration of these two things. The characters weren't overly likeable, but again this falls into part of it being literary realism: they're not meant to be. It's the first book I've ever read that actually discusses endometriosis openly, which I think is very important. I gave this book 3 stars because whilst I could appreciate it was a good book in its own right it wasn't something I enjoyed too much.
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