Normal People

my review for bwway is the same for this. ;)

Esta novela tiene algo especial. El retrato de sus personajes. El fiel reflejo de las relaciones humanas, los juego de poder, la diferencia de clases y su importancia aún hoy en día, la incomunicación, la alienación... Marianne y Connel lo encarnan todo de forma sensible, sutil, sin estridencias, reencontrándose cada cierto tiempo en una estructura ideal para contar esta historia. No es una relación ideal, pero si inevitable. Una obra imperdible.

I wish there were half star ratings. Not my kind of book at all, but it went quickly.

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.

I try to read books that have been nominated for or won awards, I've had good luck with those.
Some of the awards for this are:
Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2018), Costa Book Award for Novel (2018), Dylan Thomas Prize Nominee for Longlist (2019), Women's Prize for Fiction Nominee for Longlist (2019), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2019)
The Rooster – The Morning News Tournament of Books (2020)

This is the 1st time I've read a book where there are no “Quotation Marks” used when there is dialog.
Kind of threw me off in the beginning. Takes place in Ireland, Romance between 2 high school students into college, On again, Off again - Trying to understand what they want in life! I usually like mysteries but I enjoyed this for a new change! David N.

Жили два подростка. Были они умными, но странными. Однажды они друг друга не поняли, и дальше все пошло наперекосяк, - как если первую пуговицу рубашки застегнуть неправильно и не заметить этого.
Когда пуговицы кончились, а дырочка осталась, два подростка, которые внешне уже вполне выросли, но рубашки застегивать так и не научились, ненадолго получили шанс на нормальный внешний вид с правильно застегнутой рубашкой, но очень сомнительно, что воспользуются им, потому как для того, чтобы застегнуть рубашку правильно, нужно хотя бы понимать, как это “правильно” выглядит.

This is a book with a lot of emotions—most do which are not explored very deeply, but are very easy to feel with the characters as they happen. It's not a book for the faint of heart. This book gave me (and will continue to for a while) many moments of self reflection

The author mentions literary terms throughout the book and her main male character is supposed to be an English major and a writer, but the author herself can't manage to figure out quotation marks? Nah B. It's not “cute” or “quirky” when you eliminate quotations, especially if you are using free indirect discourse as your third person narrative approach. Half of the “dialogue” was missed because I had to decipher if someone was actually speaking or not. It was annoying. At first I thought the lack of proper punctuation was a metaphor for the problems the characters had with communication, but no. This is just the style of this author's writing. That's only the tip of the iceberg of issues I had with this book. On page 48, there is a run on sentence with almost 80 words and 8 commas. Whyyyyyyy?! This book is supposed to illuminate the lack of communication in modern relationships, and I get that, but when i read through 287 pages and NOTHING happens? Nope. This was a hard pass for me.

A very melancholy “will they or won't they” book about two people dipping in and out of each other's lives. It could have been very frustrating, since a lot of their issues boil down to miscommunication but I think the author pulled off the reasons for their breakups really well.

I do like that the ending is ambiguous, I don't think I could have been satisfied if they did end up together with a fairytale happy ending. If anything I would have been fine with an ending where they don't end up staying together at all (seems more realistic).

Ikke helt der jeg trodde den skulle være, måtte lese den før jeg så serien siden den har stått på leselista mi i et år. Tematikken er interessant nok, gjennomføringen noe uforløst men kanskje akkurat sånn livet er? Tror Conversations with Friends treffer meg bedre? Er på tross av litt mumling her en meget god tekst.

If I didn't already have depression, this book would've given it to me.

I felt exhausted by this book and when I finished it—a tangible sense of relief. The glimpses into these two characters' heads were skillfully and smoothly done, but both of them seemed so miserable it was hard to bare. The thing that kept me reading was this inexplicable sense of rooting for them and a (foolish) hope that they'd suddenly get it together enough to give and receive love. Maybe that was the point but it didn't connect for me. And the main characters are the worst but also all the side characters except for Connell's mom are THE worst.
*** personal note whitest thing I could've possibly been reading right now. Update- the Hulu series made me like the book more. Not having to be ‘in' their heads made the story more enjoyable for me.

Loved it! Was curious because of the new BBC series that just came out and wanted to read the book before seeing that. Lovely characters and great observations about life in general.

“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”
“Generally I find that men are a lot more concerned with limiting the freedoms of women than exercising personal freedom for themselves, says Marianne.”

This book was not what I'd thought it would be - I don't fault it for that, though it took me a while to get into it as a result. I also don't understand or particularly like Marianne, though I certainly don't fault the book for that. It wasn't the best book I've read, with unrelatable characters whose motivations at times feel almost too well explored, and who were sometimes a bit unrealistically self aware, but it was beautifully written. I don't often deface my books, but there was a sentence on page 221 that I couldn't help but underline.

A worthwhile read, especially with the show now available, and I will certainly look for more from Sally Rooney.

I do not know how I should rate this. I will have to wrap my head around my thoughts for this before I actually write something for this review.

3.5 stars

Hienosti rakenneltu kuvaus Connellin ja Mariannen epämääräisestä parisuhteesta, joka saa alkunsa kouluvuosina ja jatkuu yliopistoon. Suhde ei tunnu oikein koskaan muodollistuvan seurustelusuhteeksi ja Connell ja Marianne tuntuvat jatkuvasti puhuvan toistensa ohi ja ymmärtävän toisiaan väärin.

Siinä sivussa kuvataan kahden nuoren ihmisen kasvua eri suuntiin. Koulussa Connell on suosittu ja Marianne paarialuokkaa, yliopistossa asetelmat muuttuvat kun Connell tunteekin olonsa ulkopuoliseksi ja Marianne on enemmän kotonaan. Yhteiskuntaluokallakin on osansa.

Connell on hienosti kuvattu nuori mies, Marianne kiinnostava nuori nainen, joka kärsii muiden ihmisten odotuksiin sopeutumisesta. Tästä voi lukea kiinnostavia näkökulmia patriarkaattiin ja haitalliseen maskuliinisuuteen ja sen vaikutuksiin kaikissa – Mariannella on selvästi omat traumansa eikä Connellkaan pysty toimimaan vapaasti mielensä mukaan.

Hyvin etenevä, kiinnostava kirja.

I felt this book addressed some of the problems I had with Conversations With Friends; some of what mas missing from the latter, was present here, namely addressing gender power dynamics and adding a contrasting narrative voice.
Rooney somehow manages to communicate a very specific type of internal female voice that I haven't seen brought to life so vividly before.
I do feel like the only aspect of her writing that sits uncomfortably with me is that she writes as someone who hasn't moved through or transcended these experiences yet; she's still in them. The perspective is valuable and utterly absorbing, but I wanted the characters to grow beyond their experiences in a more profound way.
One niggle that persisted on from Conversations with Friends, is just an overwhelming vibe of middle class whiteness and fake-wokeness (the handling of class issues is kind of heavy-handed). There doesn't seem to be an authorial awareness of this either, nor the characters' inability to strive for anything other than a vaguely conservative BoBo mediocrity.

Dual Bildungsroman romance with strong characters and conflicts. Left me a bit cold, but certainly rich in psychological depth and humanity. Definitely will read more by Rooney in the future.

„Normalni ludzie” to atypowy obraz młodzieży w gąszczu współczesnej literatury. Mimo, że w pewien sposób wzbudza dyskusje, jej celem nie jest inspirować, ani bawić a tym bardziej pouczać. Normalni ludzie to historia bez filtra, pokazująca delikatoność i kruchość młodego człowieka takim jakim jest naprawdę. Zachęca do zajrzenia w odmęty psychiki głównych bohaterów – Connella i Marianne – poczucia ich bólu, strachu, niepokojów. Fabuła koncentruje się tylko na kluczowych momentach dla tych dwóch postaci, przeskakując naprzód trzy tygodnie, sześć miesięcy lub pięć minut, w razie potrzeby, aby pozostawić nam najbardziej intensywny i emocjonalny fragment ich życia. Poznajemy ich od liceum w małym miasteczku, przez lata na uniwersytecie w Dublinie, gdy dynamika między nimi zmienia się wraz z otoczeniem i kręgiem społecznym. Nie są oficjalnie „razem” przez cały czas, a nawet przez większość czasu, ale zawsze mają znaczący wpływ na życie innych. W wyobrażeniu autorki Connell i Marianne jako oddzielne byty są mniej ważne niż wzajemne oddziaływanie między nimi - ich dynamika relacji i wpływ, jaki każdy z nich wywiera na kształtowanie się drugiego, to prawdziwa treść tej książki.
„Zabawne, ile podejmujemy decyzji, bo kogoś lubimy – kontynuuje Connell – a potem całe nasze życie jest inne. Myślę, że jesteśmy w tym dziwnym wieku, kiedy życie może się zmienić diametralnie za sprawą nawet drobnych decyzji.” 5/5

I find their relationship very unhealthy.

As always I wanted to be one of the people who loved this book, but it didn't happen. This wasn't for me at all. It was boring and didn't make any sense. When I finished the book the first thing I thought was “So what?”, and it's not a good sign. I really don't understand the point of this story, especially with such unlikable characters.

The most frustrating characters. 3.5

For me, Normal People is a novel easily forgotten. There's some wonderful writing and characterization, some good scenes throughout, but there really isn't a whole lot to the story or even to the depth of our protagonists. This could work if the journey were really powerful, or the characters really grew into something quite special, or—something...anything—but I felt no impact. Ask me in two weeks what this novel was about and I'll say, “a relationship,” and that's all I'll have.

The story is simple enough. Connell and Marianne like one another. In high school, Marianne doesn't fit in and Connell does, so he doesn't exactly broadcast their relationship to others. In college, Marianne finds her tribe, and their respective roles are reversed. I liked the story up to this point. But then the novel drags the reader through countless breakups and hookups. It's a seemingly never-ending roller coaster of on-again-off-again, breakup, hookup, breakup-hookup, every time you exit the ride, you're put right back on. Sadly, despite many good qualities and an excellent start, Normal People grew tedious.

In the realm of relationship stories, Normal People reminded me some of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies. BUT, to be clear, I hated Fates and Furies. While Normal People desperately needed to pull out and add some lubrication now and then, it was a well-written story overall with several redeeming qualities. I'd be open to reading another story from Rooney, but based on this one book, it's not a relationship I'd draw out for too long.

It just dawned on me that I now have zero recollection of any characters outside of Connell and Marianne. See—the story is already fading from my memory. This is probably a flaw in part of my own faulty memory, but certainly a stronger story would've planted more of a seed.

4 stars -