336 pages
Published June 11, 2021 by Literatura Random House.
Truly a commentary on modern relationships. A delightful and thought-provoking story.
So I once again finished a Rooney novel and am once again a shell of a man. lol. I will now have to read or watch 2-3 mindless, slightly lighthearted, pieces, just to take my mind off this book.
This was a very similar experience to Normal People. I felt like I knew the characters personally - I have friends who are like that. Everything was so extremely real and precise. It was hot to touch and burned my fingertips. To summarize: It was horrible, but at the same time - wonderful. A very masochistic experience, but one that is precious.
College undergrads making bad decisions and having no plan for life, putting off adulthood in post-crash Dublin, sounds good to me. I enjoyed this book, there is some real conversation and introspection by the main character who is complex to say the least.
I enjoyed this menage-a-quatre despite a few short comings of the novel. Rooney is not a visual writer, doesn't describe places. I've never been to Dublin or France, so I just pictured Boston and Cape Cod, it was about the same. There were few colloquialisms in here, which is a good thing. There was a reference to the "tills" but I figured it out. Still there is not a strong sense of place.
The other two issues involve cliche - there is a mirror scene where the narrator looks at herself and describes herself to the reader. And there is the alcoholic Irish dad, the only thing …
College undergrads making bad decisions and having no plan for life, putting off adulthood in post-crash Dublin, sounds good to me. I enjoyed this book, there is some real conversation and introspection by the main character who is complex to say the least.
I enjoyed this menage-a-quatre despite a few short comings of the novel. Rooney is not a visual writer, doesn't describe places. I've never been to Dublin or France, so I just pictured Boston and Cape Cod, it was about the same. There were few colloquialisms in here, which is a good thing. There was a reference to the "tills" but I figured it out. Still there is not a strong sense of place.
The other two issues involve cliche - there is a mirror scene where the narrator looks at herself and describes herself to the reader. And there is the alcoholic Irish dad, the only thing slightly interesting is when he becomes paranoid.
Also Rooney doesn't put quotes around the dialogue. That wasn't a big deal because its still set off by commas: blah blah, I said, blah.
The ending was great, didn't expect it - Come and get it.
