Normal People
Ratings1,026
Average rating3.6
I loved loved loved this. Started it at 8:00 finished at 2200. Everything from the characters to the story spoke to me. The ending I felt a “meh” but maybe that was meant to be. A great piece of contemporary fiction that feels all too familiar to a life I've lived
I truly enjoyed Rooney's writing style, I don't know why, it just grabbed me from the first sentences. I will pick up her other works for sure. I also listened to it partly on audio so even when I read it could still hear the Irish accent in my head which only made the experience better.
I took my time with it because there was only so much of those characters I could take on in consistent dose. There were pretty messed up and suffered for it while not doing anything about it. I hate seeing people suffering when their lives could be a little better if they would just tackle their demons. I see a lot of people around me setting themselves on destructive paths just because they're trying to runaway from their feelings and traumas. Life can be so hard even when you're working your way through all of that anyways let alone when you're just making it worse. Watching Marianne and Connel's relationship develop was an uncomfortable experience yet I couldn't break away.
Man is this ever a polarizing read.
On one hand it's a YA romance. Marianne is the dorky rich girl and Connell is the popular working class football star whose mom cleans Marianne's family home. If that sort of high school cliche doesn't sell you it soon slouches into NA territory. Marianne hooks up with the wrong kind of guys and Connell dates bland nice girls. Will they or won't they? We spend the entire book watching the two dance in and out of each others lives in what amounts to a Marxist romance novel. People hate this and the growing social media hype surrounding author Sally Rooney isn't exactly endearing her to serious readers.
Well screw them. All aboard the hype train!
I loved Normal People. As Rooney states, it's essentially a nineteenth century novel dressed up in contemporary clothing. Jane Austen for the social media set. Say. No. More. Marianne and Connell are recognizable types in high school but in college their status flips. Marianne is suddenly interesting and surrounded by a large coterie of friends and acquaintances while Connell feels like a milk-drinking culchie lost among the prep school kids in their plum chinos, carting around MacBooks. The two weave in and out of each others lives. Sometimes dating, sometimes just friends, and to me it never mattered whether they ended up together or not - it felt more like an examination of a pivotal four years post high school where they both wrestle with what it means to be in a relationship, grapple with depression and grief, understand their own worth and contend with the shifting power dynamics inherent with relationships. Consider me a fan.
https://youtu.be/WVTgzL9ZCj8 for more gushing over the hardest book you'd ever want to try and handsell.
👍🏼Pick It: For a heavy-bagged, home-hitting version of Harry Met Sally
👎🏼Skip It: If you damn any romance that deviates from Happily Ever After
“Well, that destroyed me,” I said, out loud, to no one in particular, when I closed this book.
Marianne and Connell are not living out a particularly unique trope. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy and girl can never get the timing right. Boy and girl feel too wrong to be right for the other. Rooney is the difference maker here. She pieces out truths and extracts fears that go unearthed by even the most self aware and vulnerable individuals.
The result: me, the reader, fighting the every-page urge to annotate passages of my library copy, rip sentences for later recycling to scream, “THIS! I FEEL LIKE THIS!”
Rooney is a prolific rarity in the character-driven plot. The way she lays out the ever-shifting dance or demise of Connell and Marianne's relationship is a dizzying masterpiece.
Frustrating. If this book could only have one word to describe it, that would be it.
In a way, I like Marianne's character for being consistent (though the same could be said for Connell) and the fact that her motivations and destructive behavior come from an understandable source (I appreciated the attempt the author made to make her a real human being). From the outset, Marianne is a very vulnerable person who primarily feeds her self-worth with other's attention (be it negative or positive). When a broader picture of her family life is depicted, it is undeniable to see how she came to this troubling and flawed view of herself. As the story progresses, this behavior manifests through her actions and developing relationships with what can clearly be characterized as despicable people. It is evident that Marianne is not equipped with a well-rounded disposition with which to develop a healthy lifestyle but she's also not intrinsically innocent and further fosters dangerous tendencies to deal with her neglected self-esteem.
Her character is so consistent as to be predictable but due to the nature of her proclivities, it is like tensely waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Connell, on the other hand, stayed very much two-dimensional and was a character I could not like from the beginning. I'm sure the author wrote him with that intention to a certain extent but I couldn't see at any point where he became an interesting enough character to care about anything he did. He could not see past his own nose to care about Marianne or even have an honest conversation about his feelings, her family, or any other sensitive topic. I could see past his juvenile tendencies when he was actually a kid and understand that he still didn't learn how to communicate effectively with Marianne even during their college years, but at a certain point I expected him to actually have a thoughtful and meaningful exchange with someone he considered his best friend.
I particularly did not care for the time-jumps because they didn't serve the novel at all. I'm not even sure what they were meant to do besides illustrate the fact that Connell and Marianne had kept in touch for years after high school. They only reinforced Marianne's predictably self-destructive behavior, Connell's cowardice, and fleeting moments of “friendship” where a bit more personal (superficial) insight was unveiled when the two would meet.
This brings me back to my initial point of contention, the fact that this book is undoubtedly a horribly done romance, written to frustrate the reader to no end. And, consequently, the number one trope I despise in romance (or any genre really) is misunderstandings/miscommunications. Using this trope for the sake of creating tension between the two main protagonists is lazy and lays a faulty foundation for any sort of relationship set to prosper from it. The author may have been trying to use this fault in the trope to her advantage and demonstrate a deterioration in the relationship but it did seem like the sole purpose of it and became a very obvious plot device that pulled me out of the story very easily on multiple occasions.
The writing is the sole reason I didn't stop reading this book. The author drops you right into the narrative (very slice of life) and the sequence of events jump due to the time skips, and land in a different dynamic where the characters are at some new point (a few months later) that's different enough from the last spot to warrant reading further just to find out how they got there.
There was one scene that I particularly abhorred because it felt like the author used a side character's decidedly deteriorated mental health to delve deeper into the one of the protagonist's briefly mentioned anxiety and exploit it. It felt like such a throwaway scene to progress the plot and wrap-up a relationship that was an obvious farce from the start. The author's attempt to deal with mental health and therapy is so subpar that I didn't believe it; there was a serious lack of connection with the protagonist and no sense of authenticity, creditability or sincerity during the counseling session.
I honestly thought the character interactions were somewhat well-done and insightful but the ending brought this back full circle, back to the beginning where miscommunication was abundant; only this time the protagonists' understood each other a bit more deeply but neglected to effectively take those same insights into account when discussing personal matters. Frustrating, to say the least.
This one was not for me. Watching two people miscommunicate for years. It was painful.
Connell and Marianne pass each other in the halls, seemingly strangers, living in completely separate worlds. But are they really strangers? Connell is the popular athlete, son of a hard-working single mom who scrapes by cleaning houses, and one of the houses Connell's mother cleans is that of Marianne. Marianne is the completely isolated studious rich girl who doesn't have a single friend in the entire world and seems to have no interest in acquiring any.
But, somehow, Connell and Marianne become friends. And then more. And this is the story of their relationship, how it shifts and changes, each filling in for the weaknesses of the other, each using his/her own strengths to build up the other, each using the weaknesses of the other to hurt the other. It's a beautifully written story of relationship, the glories of relationship and the pains.
I will look for more books by this author.
This review can also be found on my blog.
While I knew from the start that this book would be different than anything I had experienced before, I had no idea how much I would love it. Normal People tells the story of Connell and Marianne, two very different people who somehow just keep meeting. It begins while they're in secondary school and spans the course of their university careers. At its heart, this is the story of two people whose lives cannot untangle.
Even in memory she will find this moment unbearably intense, and she's aware of this now, while it's happening.
While their relationship is often not quite healthy, I really rooted for them to be together. Sally Rooney writes in such a way that you can understand them both even while condemning their actions. Oftentimes their conflicts are the result of miscommunications that could have easily been avoided by pressing one another further rather than making assumptions. Deep down, they both care quite deeply about each other and none of the hurt is intentional.
Is the world such an evil place, that love should be indistinguishable from the basest and most abusive forms of violence?
I found myself repeatedly caught up in the depth of emotion I felt while reading this. Sometimes I would have to put it down for a moment, breathless, as I contemplated the characters and their situations and the parallels I was able to draw to my own life. I nearly wept at the closing page, but at the same time felt buoyed by its message. I'd say I thought my reaction to this was just me, but everyone else in my Women's Prize group also gave the book 5 stars.
Life offers up these moments of joy, despite everything.
Sally Rooney is really something else. I was worried my expectations for her were a bit too high, but she still managed more than I could have even hoped for. I have a copy of Conversations With Friends sitting on my shelf at work that I cannot wait to dig into. If you were thinking about picking up Normal People, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Arguably not as well written as [b:Conversations with Friends 32187419 Conversations with Friends Sally Rooney https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500031338s/32187419.jpg 52827120] but somehow more compelling. I don't know if Sally Rooney is this generation's Salinger (do we need one of those?), but she is amazingly talented and it will be interesting to see how she evolves as a writer in the coming years and decades.
I liked this book. It was a very sweet story with a really good message. I loved the characters (most of them, anyway).
I relate to both Marianne and Connell on so many different levels. I felt an emotional connection with them!
I loved how the story was spaced out over the years and went back to catch you up on what was missed in between. I am not a fan of the ending and am slightly confused about where the characters stood.
The full review is available at The Gray Planet.
Normal People by Sally Rooney is a work of depth and perception unlike any novel I have ever read. It is a Bildungsroman, a very complex and personal one in which two very different coming of age stories are intertwined.
The first story is Connell's, a young man who in high school is a popular athlete and casually brilliant student. Connell comes from working class family with little money and no social standing. The second story is Marianne's, whose family is very well off, who is not popular in school, but is also intelligent and a good student. Connell's mother, Lorraine, works as a housekeeper for Marianne's family.
The story takes place in Ireland over a period of four years, starting when Connell and Marianne are in high school in a small town, and continues through their first years at Trinity College in Dublin. From the moment they meet when Connell picks up his mother at Marianne's house, both Connell and Marianne feel a deep attraction. This attraction drives the narrative with a force that is both engaging and relentless. Rooney's prose and her intimate narrative of the thoughts and actions of her characters draw us into the emotional world of Connell and Marianne, and we can't get out.
This is not an easy book. The characters are so real, their interactions so deeply personal, heartfelt, and sometimes cringeworthy that we find ourselves at one moment wincing with embarrassment and at the next exalted by a deeply personal insight. But even though Connell and Marianne feel they know the other better than they know themselves, simple things cause misunderstandings and the novel becomes an emotional roller coaster, much like Connell and Marianne's relationship. It seems inevitable, even as their social roles transform, that they must be together. Over time, they are and then they aren't and then they are again. Each of them grows and changes significantly over time, but there is one constant–the depth and importance of their connection, or perhaps, addiction, to each other.
The scope of Rooney's story feels narrow at first, but it becomes expansive as we learn how Connell and Marianne struggle into adulthood and move toward and away from each other. As they grow, their personalities solidify in unexpected ways that lead to conflicts and challenges, both personal and relational, that they must face and overcome.
The ending is the weakest part of the novel, particularly on first reading. After the emotional complexity appears resolved, suddenly Rooney thrusts us back into another cycle of their relationship and calls into question the accommodations that Connell and Marianne have made for each other. After more careful reading the ending is consistent, but it does not leave the reader with closure or satisfaction and so it disappoints given how effective the rest of the novel is.
Even so, Normal People is an exceptional book, an engrossing experience that is impossible to put down. It is compelling, not in the manner of a thriller, but because we care about Connell and Marianne as if we are them. Connell and Marianne are “normal people” and we are better for having known them.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW (but also this doesn't feel like a book that can be spoiled, really, so read on at your own risk)
i have very complicated feelings about this book. i was just talking about it with my mum and i think what i told her is the easiest way to say it: i liked parts of this book (quite dearly) but i don't think i like this book as a whole - hence the slightly ambivalent and careful three stars.
i don't think i can deny that sally rooney's writing style is really up my alley - i love the way her characters are allowed to think on the page, explicitly, complexly, full of contradictions and feelings and logic and inconsistencies. it's clean, in a lot of ways, without beating around bushes. that's refreshing, to me at least. i liked the ways in which connell and marianne were allowed to struggle with their identities and their feelings and their surroundings - things that are common and important and intense while you're growing up. mostly during the first half of the book i really liked seeing marianne's individuality come out during scenes with other people, such as during this one:
???nothing would feel more exhilarating to her at this moment than to say: they???ll be on their way shortly. how much terrifying and bewildering status would accrue to her in this moment, how destabilising it would be, how destructive???
???You think you???re so special, do you? said Denice. Marianne let her eyes close. No, she said. I don???t.???
???He???s explained it, or tried to explain it, in his emails to Marianne. For her the scholarship was a self-esteem boost, a happy confirmation of what she has always believed about herself anyway: that she???s special.???
“Would she ever be happy? And what kind of happiness would it be? ... But in the end she has done something for him, she's made a new life possible, and she can always feel good about that ... [For] her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy. He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once.”
I honestly don't know what to think about this book. I've never had such a hard time assigning a star rating before.
I disliked this book until about the halfway point. After that, I still wasn't crazy about it but I was pretty invested in Marianne and Connell. Like I couldn't help rooting for them even though they made me nuts.
At the end I just wanted to chuck the book across the room.
There is something to be said for being this angry at a book, though. I'm obviously too invested in it to say that the book was simply not good. As for all the 5 star ratings go - I just don't get it. I feel like I'm missing something big here.
I've not read a story as accurate about what it's like to go through college and university as this one. You'll be rooting for both Marianne and Connell, despite their flaws.
I'm very torn over the rating of this book. It reads very simply and nothing interesting really happens, but it is a beautiful character study of two complex people, and an even more complex relationship. It is clear that Rooney is a gifted writer- often, a simple turn of phrase made me catch my breath. So, it's a 4.5 star rating for now, but we will see how long these characters stay with me, and it may be bumped to a 5.
Upon finishing this book I am emotionally very conflicted. I started reading this book with such gusto and was so immersed and invested in Connell and Marianne's complicated relationship. However the very end of the book took on a sour note and presented the relationship between the two as problematic. The ambiguous ending did nothing to resolve my issues with their relationship.I feel that both characters have much deeper issues that they need to separately address away from each other's toxic influence. The fact that Connell's power over Marianne is meant to be seen as charming or romantic is very peculiar to me. I think the way Connell treats Marianne and his lack of empathy for her feelings is certainly not very endearing and I feel that most things that didn't sit well with me about the book didn't get resolved. However I loved Sally Rooney's writing style and the fact she could weave such an intriguing story from two young people and their relationship is something to be applauded and praised. Sally Rooney has so much promise as a writer but I didn't feel fully convinced by this novel and so I am settling on a rating of 3.5/ 4 stars.
I pretty much stayed up all night to finish this, that's how much I love Sally Rooney's characters and her delicate and intimate way of writing them. This is a love story. Connell and Marianne feel the most themselves in each other's company, yet youthful insecurities, family and class issues, anxiety, depression and the discovery of sexual kinks, time after time pull them apart. Rooney does this thing so very well, where she slowly weaves psychological complexities into what you first think is a pretty straight forward story. Her scenes and her characters are frail and emotional, their insecurities and pains are palpable, and I shed tears multiple times while reading the book. Also, interesting to note, that similarly as with [b:Conversations with Friends 32187419 Conversations with Friends Sally Rooney https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500031338l/32187419.SY75.jpg 52827120], the book does finish a bit open-ended. As if Rooney wants to tell us that the dance never ends.