Normal People
Ratings1,025
Average rating3.6
A compulsive and brutally nihalistic romance novel. This is my first Sally Rooney and not at all what I expected, but it's very easy to see why she has become so highly regarded. She writes her characters with such tenderness and empathy, in spite of their confounding decisions and cycles of self alienation. At the same time they possess an acute, almost meticulous physical awareness that nevertheless only makes their pain more acute.
This book is predominantly about an inability to connect to others, of superficial interactions insufficiently standing in for a deeper connection the two protagonists crave. The conclusions they arrive at are frustrating, but so deeply articulated that they make a sort of sense. Nobody is capable of unpacking their adolescent (and ongoing) trauma because it requires a vulnerability that frankly terrifies them. So they dissociate, attempt to mirror each other, cling to the closest approximation of happiness they can find. It is unrelentingly bleak and I admire the willingness to refuse an easy resolution.
The degree to which this articulates an actual worldview of impossible codependency is murkier for me, with a lot of baggage of outdated psychology being inserted as an inherent cause of the isolation everyone feels (rather than, say, the class disparity that is crudely gestured at but far outside the novel's interests). I cannot begrudge it too much as it is well in line with characters who themselves have very little awareness of the reasons they are so unhappy, but I am skeptical about the ways that viewpoint inevitably gets expanded to be some sort of social truth.
Mostly I am surprised by the book's coldness. I devoured it in a few days and came away feeling profoundly empty. I do mean this as a compliment of sorts.
apologies to the sally rooney girlies but this was such a frustrating book to read
I don't remember when I finished this but oh god. I loved the characters and enjoyed watching them spend time together over the years but Jesus christ... I feel like absolutely nothing happened in the story. I get that might be where it was supposed to go with it being a book on the lines of, ig, being about “normal people” meaning they're not insane woosh woosh super cool epic main characters but atleast give us SOMETHING.
I will admit that I spent the entire book just praying they just end the book together and happy, obviously this never happened. This was probably my only drive to finish this book, even then it took me forever because I felt like I was tracking through a foggy, muddy mosh pit in dogs-out sandals to get to find out the meal deal I was trying to get after has been upped from £3 to fucking £4 pound. (That was psychotic btw supermarkets in the UK)
This may have been during a time of me reading what was popular and not what I might enjoy, not knowing my reading “style”. I hope that's what it's called.
So I definitely am NOT the demographic.
ggs literature grads, hope you all enjoy this lovely book <3
If you've ever wondered how it would be like to be a couples therapist maybe this book is what you're looking for.
Points for writing, I think Sally Rooney's popularity speaks for that. Her writing is sensible and “normal”. Her characters don't go into effusive prose when their emotions are heightened. They don't talk like the imaginary people in writers' heads, they talk like normal people, haha.
First 60 pages, and I just want to punch Connell in the balls, okay? Marianne needs a confrontational friend, but she needs a friend first of all.
Their back and forth and miscommunication is exhausting. It's either one of them thinks they're talking in complete sentences or the other is just not hearing half of the sentences.
I understand why some people would feel frustrated at the ending bc it seems to have very little payoff. But that's fine to me. Because that's how people's lives normally are, no neat bookends to every volume of their lives. And if anything, that ending is true to form about lives not following a neat story arc and instead we have moments which can be kinda messy.
Do I think they end up together? Idk, I think they will always have eachother in their lives because they're like the scabs of a scar. It's just there. But by that end, they're at different points of understanding themselves. Connell is a bit further on and if anything at least he seems to be sure of some things. We have to keep in mind, we only know of Marianne's thoughts and she tends to be more pessimistic but like Connell, she's only sure of a few things. Few, but important.
I loved the atmosphere of this book as well as the familiarity with the characters. Straight away as I began ‘Normal People' I knew that it would be a complex and emotional book.
The emotions displayed represent real feelings of everyday people.
I wish I annotated this book because it holds many complex ideas while also demonstrating he heartbreak and complications within relationships.
However, the timeline was kind of hard to understand when it jumps from different times of Connell's and Marianne's lives.
It is also better than conversations with friend and I can see how Sally Rooney's writing has gotten better of the time.
Normal People may not be for everyone, but it's absolutely worth giving a try.
Sally Rooney's characters are extremely believable and lifelike. You feel their highs and lows, and like people in our own lives, they are flawed. I think in this lies the issue that many people have with Normal People:the main characters don't act like you want them to. They don't communicate well and they make decisions that actively make their lives worse, but wanting them to act differently is much like reflecting on a conflict you had in your own life and wishing it went differently– “Damn, I should've said ‘x' instead of what I actually said.”
Connell and Marianne make mistakes, but they also have successes. They have good role models and bad influences in their lives. I enjoyed watching their lives unfold, and continue to enjoy imagining how their lives would continue; either together or apart.
I also must say that I have never empathized with a character more than when Connell seeks counseling at his university. When I was reading this, I too was talking to university doctors about treating my anxiety; something I didn't realize I was dealing with for years. After my mother read this book it was a big help for me to be able to tell her that I was going through what Connell did in college. She didn't know anyone who was open to her about their struggles with mental health, but she knew Connell and I didn't have to start from scratch when I tried to explain how I was feeling.
Thanks Sally for helping me to be feel understood.
3/5 • A frustratingly, toxic relationship.
While I appreciated the beautiful writing of this book with rich descriptions. The dynamic between the two main characters can only be described as toxic. I found myself towards the end really not caring about their relationship and wanting them to both just move on as they both brought too many issues and hid their true emotions.
This is one of those novels for young adults where the main girl character is awkward, bullied at school, and her family is abusive, and she falls for the main guy character, and he's handsome and athletic, but also mysterious and introspective, and yet it subverts expectations, it even subverts its own clichés.
Normal People is filled with beautiful sentences, and Sally Rooney has a tremendous capacity for writing complex and neurotic teenagers who become equally complex and neurotic adults.
I also find it admirable how she explores capitalism and the effect it has on our relationships and our mental well-being, and how the place and people you grow up with can dictate your future.
idk i liked this because i am also an antisocial loser who is terrible at communicating with others so... relatable
Second Sally Rooney book i've read and equally just as bad.
idk if the world is hyping her books as a big joke or am i just missing something?
The Sally Rooney cult is huge and i was hoping to like her so i can be one of the SR girls but no :((
I can appreciate the book for what it was: nothing but sad vibes and a terrible lack of quotation marks
“Most people go through their whole lives, Marianne thought, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”
Despite all the good things I have heard about this, I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did.
I can't put into words how real this felt. The characters weren't perfect, they were flawed and made mistakes. They were real. I absolutely loved reading the changes in the characters and how life and experienced shaped them differently. This was like reading a page out of one of my old diaries.
This was such wonderful writing and story-telling. I feel like this book and the characters will be roaming around in my head for a long time to come.
“I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.”
This was the first book of Sally Rooney's that I had read and I can wholeheartedly say that it will most definitely not be the last.
4.5 stars. Didn't want to like this book but I really really did. Read it on a plane back from Europe and I didn't finish it on the journey but I kept reading after I got back, that's how enthralled I was. Maybe those feelings will fade with time but I feel like she just knows her characters so well, they felt very real and relatable to me, as an avoidant person with relationship issues.
Not my usual fare, not a bad read but not good - just fine. Satisfactory writing but I didn't engage with anyone. Perhaps this author is just not for me. I mildly disliked everyone and had no interest in their lives.
I assume the point was that we're all unpleasant weirdos who hate ourselves underneath - and I don't disagree - but I've read so many better books with this theme.
And then there was the sex, it probably wasn't a lot but it felt like far too much: being had, not had, discussed, implied... sigh
Doubt anything from it will stay with me, already their names are slipping away.
Sally Rooney's writing is wonderful - so much so I finished this book while simultaneously disliking the characters and not caring much about the story. But the writing!