Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney

Normal People

Author: Sally Rooney

Published: 16th April 2019

Publisher: Hogarth Press

Number of pages: 273

Format: Hardback

Source: Library

Purchase: Amazon | TBD | B&N

From Goodreads:

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.

My Review

Normal People was my first Sally Rooney book and it won't certainly be my last. 

As soon as you start the book you immediately realise that this author has a peculiar writing style. Sentences are short yet punctuation lacks when it comes to dialogues. Sometimes I had to reread a sentence twice to really understand who was talking, yet, I felt like this kind of sterile narration perfectly fit the protagonists' incapacity of showing their feelings. I am actually really curious about wheter this writing style was purposely used in this book to better describe Marianne and Connell or if it's actually the author's unique touch that I'll find in her other works too.

I saw a lot of mixed reviews about this book and I can totally understand why some readers might have not liked it. It's not easy to follow a story where there's not much happening and where the characters speak in monosyllables but I was rather fascinated by the incredible psychological work the author put into creating this story. Marianne and Connell are both very relatable characters: they are young, they both have had a difficult life, they don't know how to face love and they make stupid mistakes to try and be normal people. The fact that the narration didn't have any kind of distractions, allowed me to be completely focused on their emotion, which are not laid bare on the pages but are rather a most-welcomed prize for those of us who tried to read beyond the author's apparent aseptic narration. Both characters really got to me, Connell way more than Marianne and I was totally surprised as I was so sure before starting the book, that he would have been an abusive kind of boyfriend! The whole concept of normalcy and of being a "normal person" permeates the book and guides our characters from the beginning toward the wrong path. To fulfill this idea of normalcy, infact, Connell and Marianne will both sacrifice their shot at happiness and they realise only later how these stereotypes will never fit anyone. What it means to be normal indeed? For Connell, it meant to stay far away from the girl he loved just because she was considered a weird but this will only set the two of them both to a long path of dissatisfaction. It was curious how at a certain point Connell admits how Marianne, who in his eyes was past other people's judgement, showed him another way of being, while on the contrary, she was much more concerned with fitting in than he was. Marianne is maybe the most controversial and frustrating character in the book because despite everything she has survived, she always finds the way to attract more darkness her way. Her fragile nature and self-destructiveness though, just make her someone with who the reader can relate. I've read many readers complain about the ending, but I appreciated the finale of the story so much as it was the perfect way to show us how Marianne in particular has actually learned from all their struggles and has found her emotional independence.

For me, Normal People was a really easy read, I just kept reading and reading without ever feeling tired. It's a short book, yet it gives the reader a great chance at exploring human nature a little bit deeper. If you're looking for a book with a complicated plot or just a normal story where boy meets girl, then you won't certainly like this book. But if you want to read something different that will maybe make you think twice about what you'd be willing to sacrifice to be accepted, then Normal People might be your cup of tea!

Rated 3.8