Gracie Kay Close- Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

 I have been listening to this book, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, and one of the themes in the book had me thinking back to some of the many discussions we had in class. We talk about "self" a lot, and the discovery of one's self along journey's, pilgrimages, trails or whatever synonym you want to give those words. A very consistent theme amongst all of the four main characters in the book is self discovery. 

Conversations with Friends follows four people. Francis and Bobby, once romantically together but now just friends at University together and Melissa and Nick who are about a decade older but connected to the two girls by means of a business opportunity. As they spend more time together feelings are unraveled, and more than one character is forced to deal with changing and current values in their lives. In particular the book focuses on Francis, given she is the narrator of the story, so much of this story is observed through her perspective. 

It is typical for one to undergo many self discoveries at different points in life, and I did enjoy how Rooney seemingly did that with four different characters in the book. She used each character as a way of support for each discovery. For Francis, her transformation came from Bobby in primary school but then with Nick she started to explore love and intimacy. Each person served a purpose for discovery and questioning. The book displayed true emotion and quarrel over what it really means to discover parts of your emotions that you've never explored before. In class we discussed similar parts in both Professors accounts on the Camino and Appalachian trail, as well as in the Somewhere I Have Never Travelled Book. 

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