It's no surprise that Conversations With Friends was a huge hit this summer, especially with the success of its preceding series Normal People, another show based on a Sally Rooney novel. The series follows best friends s and Bobbi, who get entangled with an older married couple, Nick and Melissa.
While both shows have been known to be accurate to their books, Conversations With Friends does have some differences between the novel and the adaptation. These are the differences between the novel and its translation to the screen.
s And Nick's First Kiss
In the miniseries version of Conversations with Friends, s and Nick share their first kiss in one of Nick and Melissa's upstairs rooms. While this kiss is also during Melissa's birthday party in the novel, the encounter takes place in a different room: the utility closet near the kitchen.
The kiss in the show provides a bit more tension because its location provides Nick and s with more privacy, therefore more freedom to act as they wish. In the utility closet, however, the two lovers couldn't share more than just a kiss because of the party happening right outside the door.
The Vacation Location
When Melissa invited Bobbi and s to her friend's vacation home, it further solidifies the odd closeness the two friends share with the older couple. While in the show, the four travel to Hvar, Croatia, the book location was in Étables, Brittany in .
This change in location doesn't appear to cause any difference in the show's storyline, however. The trip achieves the exact same effect in the Hulu drama as in the book, and both include the big shock of Bobbi discovering s and Nick.
The Accents
In the novel that the miniseries is based on, none of the four main characters are noted to be anything other than Irish, while in the show, each character has a different accent. For the most part, this doesn't add anything to the story other than some extra character background.
Bobbi's American accent is perhaps the biggest change out of all four characters. It is most jarringly out of place than the other European accents and establishes Bobbi even further as a unique character.
s's Communist Beliefs
In the book, s is very vocal in her communist beliefs, and it's something she often discusses with other characters. In the miniseries, however, s its she isn't strongly committed to those beliefs.
Author Sally Rooney often explores class and relationship differences in her work, and s's identity was originally used to cause a further divide between her and Nick, as s is a young, ionate communist woman involved with an older, ive, and wealthy man. While the overall show difference retracts a little from this conflict, the other identities still translate.
Nick And s's Emails
One of the differences between the miniseries and the book is the conversations between Nick and s. In the show, the two are seen texting, while in the book the two send committed emails back and forth.
It makes sense why the creators wanted to change this, as texts are much easier to translate to screen, and viewers can even read them themselves. Emails work a lot better in novels, and Sally Rooney uses them often in her work, as seen in Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You?, which has potential to be an novel adaption.
Melissa's Confrontation
In the novel, when Melissa confronts s about sleeping with Nick, it goes down a lot differently than in the show. In the book, Melissa delivers an email to s that is several pages long, practically venting all of her emotions and saying some unbelievably hurtful things about her husband.
In the show, Melissa and s have a face-to-face conversation. This does a lot of favors in the adaptation, as it gives more of an insight into Melissa's struggle and portrays her as a more likable Conversations With Friends character than an oversharing voice in an email. The novel's email, however, does enforce the power dynamic between Melissa and s, as her perfectly edited words hint that the older woman still holds the "professional writer" title over s.
Nick Giving s Money
s and Nick have a complicated relationship for many reasons, mostly because of his marriage and their age gap. In the novel, however, this relationship is even more complex because Nick also gives s money when she is in need.
It's clear that s and Nick can't have a "normal" relationship, but when her serves as a financial provider for s in the book, their unequal power dynamic is even further solidified. The show expresses this divide more strongly in other areas, such as their age.
Point Of View
In the novel, the reader only gets s's point of view. Not only does this provide constant narration into s's thoughts, but gives an almost unreliable view of the other characters, as they are perceived only by how they relate to her.
Obviously, this is something not easily translatable to the screen. Director Lenny Abrahamson purposely didn't include narration in order for the show to feel more realistic. Because of this, the show also gives a more justifiable lens to the other characters, who are given deeper representation.
The Beginning
In the original book, the story immediately begins with s and Bobbi's first meeting with Melissa. In the binge-able miniseries, it's about four minutes of screen time before the two even run into Melissa.
This difference makes a lot of sense in the adaptation. While the book's rush into the story does get the plot rolling immediately, the show gives time to develop and illustrate Bobbi and s's relationship before delving into the main storyline.
s's Mental Health
While s does appear to not have the best mental health in the show, her depression is much more serious in the books, which include several clear instances where she wishes or does harm herself.
It's probably for the best that Abrahamson didn't choose to include the extent of s's personal harm in the show. Because of its reliance on visual storytelling, self-harm in television shows can be extensively harmful to viewers. Instead, actress Alison Oliver portrays s's depression just as effectively without it, just from her performance alone.