Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Normale mensen

I see why this book is so polarizing.

I can understand how people would see Normal People as super deep and think the main characters are relatable. They are messy, anxiety-ridden, bad at communication, struggling with low self esteem and making bad decisions because they feel intrinsically unworthy. The story is slice-of-life bits that attempt to capture very human and millennial struggles.

On the other hand, I can also understand if people find the characters too self-involved, co-dependent, and frustrating to be redeemable, relatable, or rootable (is that a word?) There's an interesting dichotomy: on one hand, this book could be interpreted as romanticizing pain, but it could also be interpreted as unflinchingly realistic and refreshing.

My take is that the story and characters are indeed relatable in the way that most humans want to think that they're significant and individualistic and interesting, but in reality they...aren't. Marianne and Connell want to think themselves as deep, the story wants us to see it as deep...but it doesn't do it for me. Some other cons for me: the side characters were cartoonish caricatures, the Marxist leanings (which I am a fan of) aren't the most subtle, and the scene with the casual racism just grated on my nerves. I get that it is possible, likely even, to have closeted racists in your social circle, but the point of tolerance made the character in question more unlikable.

Personally, I found that Rooney's writing is plainspoken, not complex or nuanced in any way, but it was still incredibly engrossing and compulsively readable. It's strange because I was not bored once, despite finding the characters to be stale (possibly a result of a lot of passive voice). The writing style and occasional quietly emotionally-charged moments were enough for me to give this book 4 stars.

Content Warnings

More...