Intermezzo

by Sally Rooney

Hardcover, 432 pages

english language

Published Sept. 24, 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

ISBN:: 978-0-374-60263-5

(20 reviews)

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one …

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

2 editions

loppear reviewed Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

inwardly tense and sex-filled

4 stars

Marvelous capture of two brothers coming to understand themselves better through emotional and sexual relationships they judge themselves over and fear society and family and each other will judge them too. The characters are mostly loving, worried, and care-free - without the demands of care (their father has recently passed; there are only adult children here), they are free to be lost about what love is for most of the book.

jterryn reviewed Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Review of 'Intermezzo' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A beautiful book. Contains so many nuances. The book takes a little getting used to, but the latter half of the book is fantastic. I love all of the little details in the book and how much emotional depth each character is given. It’s a story about grief, but also a story about healing. Fantastic.

Hinobara reviewed Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Meh

2 stars

La historia de dos varones incapaces de comunicarse entre sí y las mujeres de sus vidas que les hacen terapia gratis.

Owl of Minerva reviewed Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

intermezzo

3 stars

Helt okej lite mer avancerad romans (eller tantsnusk som jag kallar det. Det störiga är dock det påtvingade lyckliga slutet som gör att all subversiv potential undergrävs. Dessutom var den lite för lång för att bara lättsam underhållning.

Jim Brown reviewed Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Rooney doesn't deserve the hate

No rating

Sally Rooney gets hate, but I'm convinced that people are made that she's so good at such a young age. She's great at relationships. I want to write a paper about her use of the word "Yes" in this book - it comes up during so many internal monologues, across characters. Characters stumble into an understanding of something and say "Yes." I'm not sure if it's a tick across her novels - I've never noticed it before.