The book: For a thought-provoking and fast read, look no further than Trinity alumna Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. The book follows 21-year-old Frances, an English student at Trinity College who has an affair with an older married man. It offers highly detailed and realistic portraits of contemporary characters that students will recognise in themselves. Frances and Bobbi, her best friend and former girlfriend, perform spoken-word poetry, through which they meet Melissa and Nick, a couple in their thirties who have a lasting impact on Frances and Bobbi’s lives.
The book has been likened to a twenty-first-century version of Catcher in the Rye, and it’s easy to see why. The characters are sharp yet the narrator herself leaves a lot unsaid, creating a real sense of two-dimensional knowledge of what takes place. On the one hand we have Frances’ external narration of events, and on the other, her internal monologue detailing her thoughts and hopes — often never expressed to any other character.
Conversation with Friends is a novel about growing up and approaching the brink of adulthood. Rooney skillfully articulates the fear and bewilderment that come with being in your twenties, raising questions about one’s personality, monogamy and family obligations — at one point Frances says, “I felt sorry for all of us, like we were just little children pretending to be adults”.
This book could easily be read in one sitting. I devoured pages whenever I could; a chapter between lectures here and there, a rushed glance over breakfast … it’s the kind of book you just have to get to the end of immediately.
I cannot say the ending was completely satisfactory however, and as the book progressed I lost faith in many of the characters. My advice would be to find a good nook and curl up with this book for a few hours. Afterwards, find a friend who’s read it and have a good old conversation about it, because there are many plot points to discuss.
The nook: Many people don’t know about the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin (aptly coined ‘Dublin’s Secret Garden’), which lies nestled between Clonmel Street and Upper Hatch Street, opposite Diceys on Harcourt Street. The gardens are only a thirteen minute walk from college, and are far nicer than Stephen’s Green, boasting a waterfall and a rose garden smack in the middle of the city centre. With a huge array of lunch takeaway options on Camden Street — Listons, The Cracked Nut and The Bretzel Bakery to name a few — it’s simple to buy lunch and sit by the waterfall with a good book.
Escape the city without trekking out to the Phoenix Park with your book, and wrap up warm with a hat, a scarf and a takeaway drink or a flask of tea. The gardens close at 4pm, so it’s best to get there early in the afternoon to guarantee prime reading time and a good spot by the waterfall.
The cup: My chosen cup for autumnal days is a big cup of warm honey, lemon, ginger and mint tea from The Cake Café on Camden Street (also another lovely indoor reading nook to escape autumn in Dublin). They don’t advertise the addition of mint to the drink on the menu, but I would recommend asking for it because it gives the drink a nice fresh aftertaste. This warm cup is perfect for fending off a winter cold and placating over-eager coffee drinkers who want to cut back on their caffeine consumption.
The Cake Café has been a long-time favourite of mine in Dublin and a hidden gem. Access to the café is a little confusing — the entrance is parallel to Camden Street on Pleasant’s Place, just up the road from the café Meet Me In The Morning, which also offers great coffee and a homemade chocolate nut butter, cleverly called ‘nut eile’.
The café itself is tiny and eclectic, with mismatched cups and saucers and a brightly decorated leafy courtyard, complete with bike racks and dog bowls. Their specialty is of course cakes, although they also serve a delicious chicken sandwich at lunchtime for €5.80 and brunch at the weekends. The cake selection changes daily, and you can see everything being made while you have your coffee or honey, lemon, ginger and mint tea, thanks to the open plan inside the café.
The Cake Café has a wide selection of teas and their own Italian hot chocolate, so don’t worry if you want something stronger than tea. Favourite cakes include their homemade lemon slices, decadent chocolate cake and gluten-free lemon and yogurt cake. The café also run a series of baking and bread-making classes in the evenings and cakes can be ordered for special occasions. Also worth a visit is their sister café Slice in Stoneybatter.
