A good romantic drama lives and dies by the way its characters look at one another. Sally Rooney gets it. Conversations with Friends, Rooney’s debut novel before Normal People, which launched her into quite frankly alarming levels of literary superstardom, is full of looks. Loaded looks, suffocating looks, looks that last forever. A look that makes Frances – the 21-year-old heroine of Conversations with Friends who becomes embroiled in a complicated love quadrangle with an older married couple – feel as if a key is “turning hard” inside her.
“I think that’s just testament to the fact that we all really care about it, really liked it, and everyone kind of fought for their character”
There are plenty of looks like that in the television adaptation of , streaming on Prime Video this month, too. Midway through the series, Frances – played by new talent Alisonher looking, because partly I’m jealous – even though it’s just my character.”
