Book Review: Normal People, Sally Rooney

 Normal People, Sally Rooney (2018)

My rating: 4 stars

Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life-changing begins. 

Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can’t.

I put this off for so long because Becca hated it, and in general I do hate miscommunication as a trope. However, I received this as a gift after I took Rafi to The Coconut Tree for tea. So, the book was there, and I finally bit the bullet. 

I really enjoyed this book. The intricacies of the two characters, and the undeniable familiarity and lack of it between them, kept me hooked. I can see why people compare it to Exciting Times, with the internalised thought processes which occupy so much of the plot. The characters of Connell and Marianne are ones I enjoyed living alongside. Rooney harnesses the power of words so brilliantly in this novel. I read it in 4 days. When I finished, I wasn’t ready to review it, and honestly I may have left it too long to remember toooo much, but I underlined a huge proportion of the book: these are all the lines I underlined in Normal People.

I understood the hard, and the tough, and the sad, and the difficult. Mixed in alongside the happy and the fun and the love, and the pleasure. All rolled into one, the story felt real and frustrating and relatable. It reminded me of being a student at university, of finding life a bizarre mix of adulthood and childishness and freedom and entrapment. No matter how tough, there was always hope. 

‘Life offers up
these moments of joy despite everything.’ (222)

I started watching the series, but honestly, miscommunication as a trope is not one I can handle on-screen. In writing, fine. On-screen, nuh-uh!