Normal People by Sally Rooney

 

266 pages

Blurb

Connell and Marianne grow 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 – 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.

 

My thoughts

I’m conflicted about this book. I liked it enough to read it over two days, and it kept my attention from start to finish. At the same time, the story, or rather, Marianne and Connell irritated me more or less from start to finish. I guess I expected more from a book that follows two young people over the course of four years. More growth, more self-awareness, and some sort of resolution. I prefer books where main characters develop and where my feelings about them are allowed to change along with that development. As it was, I felt there was probably a whole second book waiting for Connell and Marianne; one in which they finally reveal all of themselves to each other and come to some sort of real decision about who they are to and with each other.

On the other hand, the story and, more specifically, Marianne and Connell fascinated me, but in a car crash sorta way. Even after finishing the book, I can’t get away from the feeling that they were bad and good for each other in equal measure.

The style in this book bothered me. I’m not a fan of omitting quotation marks in dialogue. And while I have nothing against diving into characters’ heads and following their thought processes, this book felt heavy on introspection. Of course, the issues between Connell and Marianne can mostly be boiled down to lack of sufficient communication (which happens to be a pet-peeve of mine) and I guess that refusal to talk made the introspection essential to get their personalities on the page.

My biggest objection to this story is that while the blurb appears to hint at some sort of (happy) conclusion to Connell and Marianne’s ‘will they – won’t they’ relationship it is almost as if the book doesn’t conclude at all. In fact, while it is true that both of them have grown (should I say, ‘have come of age’?) over the course of the book, their relationship (such as it may be) hasn’t developed at all. This is most definitely not a romance, even if a lot of the story is about relationships. On a more detailed level I also had issues with how Marianne’s wish to submit was treated; as if it was something weird, something to be frowned upon, shameful even, be it that her realisation that submission didn’t have to involve pain went some way towards reducing my discomfort.

Overall, this was a captivating, although not always enjoyable, read. And I have to admit that I’m scratching my head about the fast number of literary prizes it was nominated for.