A review by raconteur
Normal People by Sally Rooney

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The book is engaging, the characters are complicated and have many issues: personal and interpersonal (The health issues, the anxiety, and the eating disorder were so evident and made me sad).
Their relationship is TOXIC,
and I hope and believe they didn't get back together after that one year
, showing what many people live.
Connel made my blood boil in many situations. He is absolutely problematic, in my pov, but he was well written. Marianne is complex, too, and it's quite interesting to read more about their journey and toxic emotional attachment to each other.

What annoyed me at first was the lack of quotation marks, but I got used to it.
Also, it includes some Marxist, political, and historical references. The author, herself, is known for her Marxist takes, too.

A couple of books Marianne and Connell read (in the book and the show): 
  • The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  • The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
  • In Seach of Time by Marcel Proust
  • The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
  • Emma by Jane Austen
  • Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
  • A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
  • Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 
  • In the Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop
  • Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
  • Ulysses, by James Joyce
  • Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire Connell
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • All My Sons  by Arthur Miller
  • Temples of Delight by Barbara Trapido (in the background in the show)
  • A novel by James Salter

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