I was prepared not to love Conversations With Friends — all I knew was that is was “sort of about poly” and came after Normal People, which not only did I love but taught me new ways of thinking about how a character in fiction can think and feel and express her thoughts on the page — and not only that, but how to be weak and wrong and “unlikable” while being compelling all the same. What a trick that is — to create a character who is so deeply flawed (like all of us) and at the same time deserving of her observers’ interest and compassion (like we all are).
All that said, I ended up liking Conversations With Friends even more than Normal People — maybe because it is not, in my opinion, about “poly” in is social and political senses but about it in practice, which is to say the act of being unsure, and dispersive, in whom one chooses to love. Maybe this is just my Gemini in Venus speaking, but I found it utterly credible, that Frances could love Bobbi, and Nick, and maybe many other people in the years to come, and I found the ending satisfying as well.
