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A review by joelhallifax
Normal People by Sally Rooney
4.0
4/5
'Marianne, he said, I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.'
The beauty of the book lies in how quiet and intimate it is.
I love the way Rooney writes too. She has this way of diving into the intricate minutiae of how we communicate, and the physical reactions to our emotions. Sure, it can be sometimes be a bit of drivel but I often found myself physically acting out each of the conversations the characters had, and because of that, these scenes exist so fully in my head - they exist as full sequences and images as if they're on film. The characters and descriptions feel so real you could touch almost touch them.
The main complaint I have with the book though is two-fold, both to do with Marianne. Marianne's arc in the book to becoming a masochist doesn't fully make sense to me and I feel Rooney didn't really know what she was writing about other than what she saw in perhaps Fifty Shades. The second of which is how underwritten her family feels - they are all just awful, her mother and father get a bit of backstory, but Alan, who becomes one of the biggest villains of the book, is just an unrelenting vindictive asshole and we never have any glimpse of humanity in him, which is wierd in a book where the focus is seeing the humanity and tenderness between people. Because of that, his character did nothing but confuse me and felt a bit out of place.
All being said, the book strikes a real nerve in me. I've had relationships like Connell and Marianne and those emotions aren't buried deep beneath the skin, so I naturally became quite attached to the book for pouring these memories and feelings that I forgot existed out of me. I would hardly call the book romantic though, but I did squee at certain points. A lot of the scenes sting and leave you with a bad-taste in your mouth in the best possible way.
This book will hurt you, but it's just tough love.
'Marianne, he said, I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.'
The beauty of the book lies in how quiet and intimate it is.
I love the way Rooney writes too. She has this way of diving into the intricate minutiae of how we communicate, and the physical reactions to our emotions. Sure, it can be sometimes be a bit of drivel but I often found myself physically acting out each of the conversations the characters had, and because of that, these scenes exist so fully in my head - they exist as full sequences and images as if they're on film. The characters and descriptions feel so real you could touch almost touch them.
The main complaint I have with the book though is two-fold, both to do with Marianne. Marianne's arc in the book to becoming a masochist doesn't fully make sense to me and I feel Rooney didn't really know what she was writing about other than what she saw in perhaps Fifty Shades. The second of which is how underwritten her family feels - they are all just awful, her mother and father get a bit of backstory, but Alan, who becomes one of the biggest villains of the book, is just an unrelenting vindictive asshole and we never have any glimpse of humanity in him, which is wierd in a book where the focus is seeing the humanity and tenderness between people. Because of that, his character did nothing but confuse me and felt a bit out of place.
All being said, the book strikes a real nerve in me. I've had relationships like Connell and Marianne and those emotions aren't buried deep beneath the skin, so I naturally became quite attached to the book for pouring these memories and feelings that I forgot existed out of me. I would hardly call the book romantic though, but I did squee at certain points. A lot of the scenes sting and leave you with a bad-taste in your mouth in the best possible way.
This book will hurt you, but it's just tough love.