Normal People

"He can’t help Marianne, no matter what he does. There’s something frightening about her, some huge emptiness in the pit of her being. It’s like waiting for a lift to arrive and when the doors open nothing is there, just the terrible dark emptiness of the elevator shaft, on and on forever. She’s missing some primal instinct, self-defense or self-preservation, which makes other human beings comprehensible. You lean in expecting resistance, and everything just falls away in front of you."

I'd obviously heard a lot of buzz about this book over the years, and among my friends, mostly mixed things. Which made me more intrigued to pick it up, as I'd heard it was a pretty intense character study of two people and how their relationship manifests from childhood into young adulthood, constantly orbit each other in irregular (and sometimes toxic) ways. I ended up really loving this. The depth that Sally Rooney was able to develop Connell and Marianne was incredible. I loved the unique ways that they were both deeply flawed and broken, and instead of leaning on each other as a fix, they lean on each other as a source of unconditional love.

The pacing was slow at times, and I would buy the argument that some of the beats were repetitive (do we really need to head ANOTHER long winded story about how Marianne drunkenly fights with her current toxic boyfriend of the month?), but I didn't mind this detail. Rooney writes quite accessibly and don't let the other reviews dupe you into thinking the lack of quotes was off-putting. I got confused about it maybe twice in the whole book because the formatting makes the dialogue clear.

It might be silly to say about a book with such high praise, but I'd be hesitant to recommend this widely. For those who love plot, this isn't the book for you. While it wasn't aimless, it was absolutely hyper focused on character and relationship development. For people who adore lovable characters, I also wouldn't recommend this. The characters often act in brash, disagreeable ways, driven by emotion or with the intention to hurt. For me, that's great characterization, but I know it's not for everyone. There's a bit of light social commentary in here as well, Rooney dances around issues of injustice, wealth, and privilege, but don't expect any of this to be fully realized. She hits a bit harder on the topic of class disparity which I appreciated. But if you love learning about Ireland, this has some really cool detail on regional and cultural differences within the country!

Anyway, this was good. I'll probably have to take a beat to recover before I pick up anything else by the author, but I'd certainly continue to read her works.

Sin duda no era un libro para mí. No sé cómo llamó mi atención y me llevó a leerlo, pero no me ha gustado nada, ni el estilo de escritura, que no aporta nada por quitar guiones sino que dificulta la lectura y la llena de incisos, sin ningún porqué. Personajes planos, incompetentes emocionalmente, que no atraen en nada, con los que me ha resultado imposible empatizar, que intercalan reflexiones semiprofundas que no encajan para nada con ellos. Una trama inverosímil que no aporta nada.

Lo más profundo que he sacado es esto que resume mis sensaciones con la novela: "Nada de lo que Connell había hecho en ellas parecía haber dejado huella en él. Todo aquel viaje transcurría como una serie de cortometrajes, proyectados una única vez, y al terminar tenía la sensación de saber de lo que iban, pero ningún recuerdo preciso del argumento. Recuerda ver cosas por las ventanillas de los taxis."

Pues igual, espero olvidar pronto esta lectura.

Sin duda no era un libro para mí. No sé cómo llamó mi atención y me llevó a leerlo, pero no me ha gustado nada, ni el estilo de escritura, que no aporta nada por quitar guiones sino que dificulta la lectura y la llena de incisos, sin ningún porqué. Personajes planos, incompetentes emocionalmente, que no atraen en nada, con los que me ha resultado imposible empatizar, que intercalan reflexiones semiprofundas que no encajan para nada con ellos. Una trama inverosímil que no aporta nada.

Lo más profundo que he sacado es esto que resume mis sensaciones con la novela: "Nada de lo que Connell había hecho en ellas parecía haber dejado huella en él. Todo aquel viaje transcurría como una serie de cortometrajes, proyectados una única vez, y al terminar tenía la sensación de saber de lo que iban, pero ningún recuerdo preciso del argumento. Recuerda ver cosas por las ventanillas de los taxis."

Pues igual, espero olvidar pronto esta lectura.

So uncomfortable, I could not read for more than thirty minutes at a time: I'd get so tense I'd have to stand up, pace, vent nervous energy. Also: so good, I'd always sit right back and continue reading.

It's tragic that life doesn't come with an instruction manual (would we read it if we had one?). Normal People is a compressed arc of two peoples' discovery of their Selves, of how to become human beings in a world that often makes it so hard. Rooney packs a lot of material into four years: social dynamics, family abuse, somewhat more sociopathy than (I hope) most of us encounter in a lifetime, shame, forgiveness, communication, self-hatred, privilege, acceptance, and growth. The principal characters are decent people, intelligent and with good moral sense; also flawed, being shitty to others or to themselves at times, with no training in or experience with real human communication; suffering and causing pain to others because of it. Social expectations play a huge role throughout: our need for acceptance and the convoluted ways we torture ourselves and others to gain it, how crippling our social framework can be for developing a fulfilling life. How society's limited definitions ("riding", "bf/gf", "friends") completely misses the infinite variety of loving relationships we can have between two or more people. How, if we're very very lucky, we can meet and recognize and attach to the right kinds of people, ones who make us better.

I seem to have a thing for tying current life events to my book readings. In this case, I read Normal People in the context of an email exchange with a dear friend in which we spoke of intimate friendship and radical conversation: of safe communication despite discomfort, of truly listening, of commitment and perseverance despite and throughout miscommunications. So that was my frame of mind while reading the book, and while that added to the poignancy of each communication misstep, and my sadness that we don't learn earlier how to listen, what I came away with was intense admiration for Rooney: she's not even thirty and already has an exquisite sense of and empathy for the human mind. Maybe her next book will be that life how-to guide that future youngsters will read.