Book Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney
4/5 stars, spoilers kinda.
I thought this was a brilliant book. The pace and tone is natural and familiar, but it’s far from boring. I found the style and attention to detail electrifying. After spending more than a year with it sitting unread on the coffee table, I am so glad I finally started reading it. For some reason I had built up the idea in my head, that it would be clichéd and clumsy; the kind of book in which the author describes feelings and events the way we think we’re supposed to react to them, rather than the way we actually do. But no, this book is a refreshing celebration of the fact that we’re all normal, in the sense that we are all moved by things in unique and surprising ways. I will be honest and say that after seeing the red sardine-tin cover everywhere, I also thought, well, it can’t be that good if everyone is raving about it, which is embarrassingly pretentious and despicable, but you might relate.
“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything,”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People
I felt deeply for the two main characters and present during their interactions. At points I had physical pains in my chest. I was invested in their progression through life and glad that they supported each other. The way the narrative switched perspectives throughout added a lot. I feel it helped some of the miscommunication to feel heartwarming and authentic, instead of plainly frustrating.
A moment that particularly stood out to me was when Connell noticed the cherries dangling from the trees outside the upstairs window. The fact that it made him think of Marianne and that he felt sad that he couldn’t send her an email about it because she was downstairs. It sounds ridiculous repeated out of context but it was so romantic. I just thought it was such a succinct way of portraying the way things hold us back. From expressing our true feelings, perhaps even from letting ourselves feel them. The whole email exchange storyline just spoke to me because at the beginning of my current relationship we were living in different countries. I remember feeling like everything paled in comparison to writing and reading those messages. And that I experienced my life at that point through the lens of those exchanges and the ways in which what I experienced related to them.
“If he silently decides not to say something when they’re talking, Marianne will ask ‘what?’ within one or two seconds. This ‘what?’ question seems to him to contain so much: not just the forensic attentiveness to his silences that allows her to ask in the first place, but a desire for total communication, a sense that anything unsaid is an unwelcome interruption between them.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People
Although the book was draining, it was enjoyable and easy to read quickly. I think I’ll read it again so I can hone in on certain bits and revisit this review. For some reason I don’t feel comfortable with giving it all 5 stars. I think I probably missed something, with regards to Marianne’s submissive tendencies. I could see that this was supposed to come from the abuse she experienced as a child, and I thought that the dynamics in her family home and toxic relationships were very well conjured up. I just felt like that was never resolved, even though her and Connell were both explicitly aware of it and able to be honest with each other. Something about the fact that he benefitted from that while she didn’t, doesn’t sit right with me. Similarly, the ending is beautifully open ended in a way, but at the same time, leaves her at his disposal in a frustrating and backward kind of way. I also found the class commentary a bit on the nose at times.
“If people appeared to behave pointlessly in grief, it was only because human life was pointless, and this was the truth that grief revealed”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People
I seriously enjoyed this introduction to Sally Rooney’s writing and will look forward to reading more and seeing how it unfolds.
