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emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was my first Sally Rooney book and I figured it would be helpful to use this book to see what the Sally Rooney hype is all about. From the outset, I knew she was a contemporary fiction author who writes mainly about people’s relationships. The relationships are toxic, and her writing style is dense, a la James Joyce, and (perhaps my biggest writing pet peeve) no quotation marks on the dialogue. This type of writing style is esoteric, high brow, and pretentious, and tends to hit its sweet spot among college age and girls in their twenties - the right spot of youthful foolishness and a transient belief that your second decade of living is the wisest you’ll ever be.
I will give Rooney her laurels for two things. The first being that I can understand why people are drawn to her books. She does a good job of fleshing out her character’s thoughts and really showing you their perfections of reality - especially the parts that make them aggravating. I can tell that she understands to some degree the capacity for human psychology, multiplicity of thought, and the miscommunication that happens in all human connections. The second thing is that Rooney does a good job of demonstrating how pervasive patriarchal stereotypes and commodification of women occur, in an overt, brash, incel-labeled manner, and the insidious, internalized, gaslit, and pervasive manners.
I don’t find these writing chops enough to overcome the multitude of sins Rooney commits in her writing. If this novel is anything to go by, they are so painfully male centric. While the two brothers are foils to each other in how they process grief (which is the red herring of this book by the way), they are foils to demonstrate how men poorly treat women. One brother, Ivan, self labels as an incel, but it’s because he didn’t know any better and was simply testing out world philosophies until he got older. One brother, Peter, is a self labeled human rights activists who champions women’s rights and yet puts himself in a deceitful love triangle that nearly ruins the lives of two good women as collateral.
The novel continually portrays women as the rehabilitation homes for these men and their dysfunctional lives and dysfunctional processing skills. These women are physically and emotionally battered from their own complex lives and yet they are the ones providing therapy, emotional processing, love, sex, and other needs meeting for these two pathetic men. These women could each have such rich lives but instead are reduced to flat, inanimate objects, used only to gratify each brother’s lust or need for emotional soothing. I nearly quit reading this book so many times after reading another onslaught of one of these women being vulnerable and these men preying on their emotional abilities to unwind their traumas.
Another element I absolutely detested was the implicit nodding Rooney was doing in making Ivan a neurodivergent character. First off, I think it quite frankly does nothing for the disability community to see a white, privileged, middle class , heterosexual man, who is a chess savant, be the representation of neurodivergence. Not only does it fall into so many unhelpful stereotypes, but Ivan’s atrocious behavior is often implicitly related to being a by product of his neurodivergence. I don’t think Rooney has the faintest clue of what she was trying to do with this character. I for one saw Ivan representing something else, not neurodivergence. He seems to me to be an example of a person with Borderline Personality Disorder. His character is someone who thinks purely in black and white, who does a lot of splitting (a rationalization in which things or a person are completely good or completely evil), and latches onto a romantic partner immediately and shows a disproportionate emotional attachment to them (sometimes called a “favorite person”). This is not all the issues that people with BPD face and it’s possible that Rooney wasn’t even trying to bring about this correlation. But to me, I see more character traits and thought patterns reminiscent of a personality disorder than neurodivergence in Ivan. And I could do the same analysis for Peter as well (especially with his penchant for violence, emotional gaslighting, and quick devolution into self harm).
In all, while this book has some interesting passages, there are some glaring issues, namely the way in which Rooney writes her women characters. Which is quite alarming to me considering the fact that her readership base is female. She’s basically glorifying a woman’s suffering and emotional abuse in a relationship all for the point of rehabilitating men who are too weak, too shallow, too selfish, and too self possessed? It’s as if you’re stargazing into a puddle. That’s all I could see in this book. And after reading it, I think I’ve seen all that I want to see about Rooney’s works. I prefer my authors and their works to decenter men fully.
I will give Rooney her laurels for two things. The first being that I can understand why people are drawn to her books. She does a good job of fleshing out her character’s thoughts and really showing you their perfections of reality - especially the parts that make them aggravating. I can tell that she understands to some degree the capacity for human psychology, multiplicity of thought, and the miscommunication that happens in all human connections. The second thing is that Rooney does a good job of demonstrating how pervasive patriarchal stereotypes and commodification of women occur, in an overt, brash, incel-labeled manner, and the insidious, internalized, gaslit, and pervasive manners.
I don’t find these writing chops enough to overcome the multitude of sins Rooney commits in her writing. If this novel is anything to go by, they are so painfully male centric. While the two brothers are foils to each other in how they process grief (which is the red herring of this book by the way), they are foils to demonstrate how men poorly treat women. One brother, Ivan, self labels as an incel, but it’s because he didn’t know any better and was simply testing out world philosophies until he got older. One brother, Peter, is a self labeled human rights activists who champions women’s rights and yet puts himself in a deceitful love triangle that nearly ruins the lives of two good women as collateral.
The novel continually portrays women as the rehabilitation homes for these men and their dysfunctional lives and dysfunctional processing skills. These women are physically and emotionally battered from their own complex lives and yet they are the ones providing therapy, emotional processing, love, sex, and other needs meeting for these two pathetic men. These women could each have such rich lives but instead are reduced to flat, inanimate objects, used only to gratify each brother’s lust or need for emotional soothing. I nearly quit reading this book so many times after reading another onslaught of one of these women being vulnerable and these men preying on their emotional abilities to unwind their traumas.
Another element I absolutely detested was the implicit nodding Rooney was doing in making Ivan a neurodivergent character. First off, I think it quite frankly does nothing for the disability community to see a white, privileged, middle class , heterosexual man, who is a chess savant, be the representation of neurodivergence. Not only does it fall into so many unhelpful stereotypes, but Ivan’s atrocious behavior is often implicitly related to being a by product of his neurodivergence. I don’t think Rooney has the faintest clue of what she was trying to do with this character. I for one saw Ivan representing something else, not neurodivergence. He seems to me to be an example of a person with Borderline Personality Disorder. His character is someone who thinks purely in black and white, who does a lot of splitting (a rationalization in which things or a person are completely good or completely evil), and latches onto a romantic partner immediately and shows a disproportionate emotional attachment to them (sometimes called a “favorite person”). This is not all the issues that people with BPD face and it’s possible that Rooney wasn’t even trying to bring about this correlation. But to me, I see more character traits and thought patterns reminiscent of a personality disorder than neurodivergence in Ivan. And I could do the same analysis for Peter as well (especially with his penchant for violence, emotional gaslighting, and quick devolution into self harm).
In all, while this book has some interesting passages, there are some glaring issues, namely the way in which Rooney writes her women characters. Which is quite alarming to me considering the fact that her readership base is female. She’s basically glorifying a woman’s suffering and emotional abuse in a relationship all for the point of rehabilitating men who are too weak, too shallow, too selfish, and too self possessed? It’s as if you’re stargazing into a puddle. That’s all I could see in this book. And after reading it, I think I’ve seen all that I want to see about Rooney’s works. I prefer my authors and their works to decenter men fully.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Infidelity, Blood
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A somewhat difficult one to rate. I fear it’s the situation I usually end up in with Rooney: I respect the craft (perhaps in this one most out of all her works) but I’m not really invested. I felt no strong desire to read this book. There is some sharp description and analysis of family/relationship dynamics amongst other issues though, some of which hit quite close to home. Ultimately, I’m therefore glad to have read the book but in the grand scheme, I just don’t think this author is for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Violence, Medical content, Car accident
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I cried on a plane finishing this book.
It might be my favourite Sally Rooney novel yet, which I would not have expected when I first opened the book, and had to reread the first few pages several times!
The sheer depth to which she writes these characters and their lives is insurmountable. They are flawed, philosophical, complex human beings who reflect the world around them (and the reader!).
The way Rooney writes has become even more sophisticated since BWWAY. I think the previous book was a necessary transition from the tremendous normal people and has enabled her to get to this point. The weaving of perspective, dialogue and tone is magic.
It might be my favourite Sally Rooney novel yet, which I would not have expected when I first opened the book, and had to reread the first few pages several times!
The sheer depth to which she writes these characters and their lives is insurmountable. They are flawed, philosophical, complex human beings who reflect the world around them (and the reader!).
The way Rooney writes has become even more sophisticated since BWWAY. I think the previous book was a necessary transition from the tremendous normal people and has enabled her to get to this point. The weaving of perspective, dialogue and tone is magic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As someone who struggles to read about grief and illnesses , I feel this was done very tastefully and with care for the reader (as well as for the characters). I found both main characters quite relatable, whilst at times I also despised them, which seems to be a pattern for me with Rooney's books. Nonetheless I kept thinking about them and what they might be doing when I wasn't reading, which is testament to how real they felt, and how compelling the author's writing is for me. An exploration of how complex different relationships between humans can be, and how to cope with our existence as a whole.
"The demands of other people do not dissolve; they only multiply. More and more complex, more difficult. Which is another way, she thinks, of saying: more life, more and more of life."
"The demands of other people do not dissolve; they only multiply. More and more complex, more difficult. Which is another way, she thinks, of saying: more life, more and more of life."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness
Minor: Drug use, Misogyny, Vomit, Medical content, Alcohol, Classism
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I started this in audio which helped me get into both brothers' mindsets and conversational tones before switching to reading the book, and I think this kept me from getting turned off by the tone. I liked Ivan's chapters a lot more but Peter's manic chapters did do a good job of giving a picture of grief and mental anguish. This grew on me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol
Minor: Medical content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I understand the appeal of Sally Rooney's storytelling, yet I personally have a hard time with it. There are beautiful, interwoven character studies in "Intermezzo" with relatable conflict in family and romantic love. But it feels like an excruciating wind-up for a couple pages of emotional release, rendering the majority of the book dramatic and airless. I'm inner-monologued out.
This book covers a lot about grief, and loneliness and the complicated nature of love. It basically illustrates what happens when an entire family doesn't believe in therapy or communication, so you watch a lot of toxic self-soothing and mommy issues playing out.
You'll like this if you have similar family dynamics, and like experiencing unstable narrators finding their way to redemption. Lots of TWs.
This book covers a lot about grief, and loneliness and the complicated nature of love. It basically illustrates what happens when an entire family doesn't believe in therapy or communication, so you watch a lot of toxic self-soothing and mommy issues playing out.
You'll like this if you have similar family dynamics, and like experiencing unstable narrators finding their way to redemption. Lots of TWs.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For me, Sally Rooney is one of my auto-buy authors and Intermezzo has not changed this.
The book follows bothers, Ivan and Peter, following the death of their dad. It explores their relationship as brothers during their grief but also their relationship with their mother and their respective partners and friends.
Tactfully, the themes of loss, grief, self image, mental illness and self loathing are explored.
Sally Rooney is able to create such fully realised characters that you can love, relate to and be frustrated by in equal measure. Unlike her other novels, I really enjoyed following two male main characters.
Whilst Normal People still remains my personal favourite. Intermezzo contains everything I have come to expect and hope for from Sally Rooney.
The book follows bothers, Ivan and Peter, following the death of their dad. It explores their relationship as brothers during their grief but also their relationship with their mother and their respective partners and friends.
Tactfully, the themes of loss, grief, self image, mental illness and self loathing are explored.
Sally Rooney is able to create such fully realised characters that you can love, relate to and be frustrated by in equal measure. Unlike her other novels, I really enjoyed following two male main characters.
Whilst Normal People still remains my personal favourite. Intermezzo contains everything I have come to expect and hope for from Sally Rooney.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not really sure how I feel about this one, like where did it end? the brothers having Christmas dinner together with their respective gfs??
I underlined a fair amount of sentences and I really resonated with Ivan. I do wish we got Sylvie's pov as well
I underlined a fair amount of sentences and I really resonated with Ivan. I do wish we got Sylvie's pov as well
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Xenophobia, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ouchouchouchouchouch. this book hurt.
god i don’t even know where to start with this review.
for one, this book was HARD. as in emotionally. having a dead dad and reading this……. Pain. literally started sobbing reading ivan talking to margaret on the phone about his dad. too relatable fuck you sally rooney (/j she ate this up).
usually i’m not the biggest fan of character-driven novels, as i find there are no stakes and tension. and yeah i found that an issue here too i guess. but fuck can sally rooney write characters well. this is my first book of hers so my expectations were pretty all over the place, but i did not expect such superb character writing. like at some points i felt like i had been transported into someone else’s life, watching their days from their eyes. i don’t think in all my reading life i have read characters with such depth as ivan and peter. holy shit.
also side note but i feel like anyone reading this should know that the entire time reading this i imagined ivan as oliver quick from saltburn (obv before he starts licking bathtub water). if this was ever turned into a movie adaptation barry keoghan would devour the role (although ntm for hurting my girl sabrina).
this review has gotten away from me.
like this book.
usually i also often despise stream of consciousness books!!! but!!!! rooney yet again leaves no crumbs!!!! it is like watching a car crash happen right in front of you for 442 pages and you can’t look away because you are oddly mesmerised by the sheer magnitude of what is happening. Yeah. that’s intermezzo in a nutshell.
also how can i not shout out my three homegirls — margaret, sylvia & naomi. i’ll be real and say i didn’t like naomi, and even by the end she felt a bit one-note, but that could be some meta-commentary on how peter views the women in his life blah blah blah. sylvia had a bit more depth, what with her chronic pain (spoonies rise up!!!) and her life outside of peter, and was by far the most interesting out of the main female cast. margaret was… also a bit boring? she also felt quite repetitive with her dialogue and inner thoughts at times, especially surrounding her relationship with ivan. like yeah the age gap isn’t small but homegirl it’s not like ur 78 and ivan is 19 like. take a xanax like ol peter boy over here.
i don’t really know what else to add. this book is a fever dream. i honestly didn’t want to pick this up for dread of what i would encounter, but once i started reading i couldn’t peel my eyes away. the book had some issues for me personally, but they weren’t due to the actual writing being bad or anything, just preferences. like i didn’t mind the dialogue choice but what i did mind is the no plot no tension insanely philosophical thoughts appearing out of thin air. although if you asked me what my favourite parts of this book were i’d have to say the insanely philosophical thoughts appearing out of thin air.
this book is a paradox for me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence
Minor: Medical content