NORMAL PEOPLE- Sally Rooney
NORMAL PEOPLE: emotive tale of dependence.
Starting this novel blindly, I began feeling quite deflated; I’d heard amazing things about the book and initially was stumped as to why people loved it. The story follows the precocious Marianne and Connell through their adolescence and into early adulthood and it took me a while to settle into the story and the characters. As I turned the pages I found myself slowly being sucked into the novel and enthralled - the characters are heavily flawed, and honestly rather unlikeable yet I couldn’t help but be drawn into their lives and end up caring about them! Rooney has mastered the art of subtlety in her writing and the constant drip feed of details and slight responses I’m sure contributed to this!
The story addresses the different stages of their life including, expectation, depression, conformity and tragedy. Overall it’s far from the uplifting love story you almost find yourself expecting in the early pages where ‘girl meets boy’. The pairs inability to communicate their feelings makes for a frustrating yet somewhat realistic read as they negotiate the twists and turns of life, and whilst to an extent there continues to be a lot unsaid past the last pages of this book, it further highlighted how much this book had got under my skin! The dependency the pair both have on one another regardless of their position in life humanises the characters that at times were selfish, anti-social and self-absorbed. It is not surprising that it has had a very love/hate response- I can see how such an awkward and depressing read could leave that impression, however for me it seemed somewhat gritty yet poignant. The story leaves a feeling that is difficult to explain- a feeling that will have me reaching for another Rooney novel I’m sure!
5 stars
Starting this novel blindly, I began feeling quite deflated; I’d heard amazing things about the book and initially was stumped as to why people loved it. The story follows the precocious Marianne and Connell through their adolescence and into early adulthood and it took me a while to settle into the story and the characters. As I turned the pages I found myself slowly being sucked into the novel and enthralled - the characters are heavily flawed, and honestly rather unlikeable yet I couldn’t help but be drawn into their lives and end up caring about them! Rooney has mastered the art of subtlety in her writing and the constant drip feed of details and slight responses I’m sure contributed to this!
The story addresses the different stages of their life including, expectation, depression, conformity and tragedy. Overall it’s far from the uplifting love story you almost find yourself expecting in the early pages where ‘girl meets boy’. The pairs inability to communicate their feelings makes for a frustrating yet somewhat realistic read as they negotiate the twists and turns of life, and whilst to an extent there continues to be a lot unsaid past the last pages of this book, it further highlighted how much this book had got under my skin! The dependency the pair both have on one another regardless of their position in life humanises the characters that at times were selfish, anti-social and self-absorbed. It is not surprising that it has had a very love/hate response- I can see how such an awkward and depressing read could leave that impression, however for me it seemed somewhat gritty yet poignant. The story leaves a feeling that is difficult to explain- a feeling that will have me reaching for another Rooney novel I’m sure!
5 stars
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