BOOK REVIEW | Normal People - Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney was a novel of which I encountered many (beautifully put together) Instagram posts and reviews that highly recommended reading it. Just like Rooney's debut novel Conversations with Friends, Normal People was received with overwhelmingly positive reactions by critics as well as readers. The book was first published in September 2018 by Faber and Faber.

Connell and Marianne are two people who go to school together in Carricklea, Co Sligo and seem to have nothing else in common. Connell's mother Lorraine is employed as a cleaner by Marianne's mother, marking a socioeconomic difference between the two high school-goers. Despite an inequality in wealth, Connell is popular in school, whereas Marianne is mostly perceived as odd. When picking up his mother one afternoon, Connell and Marianne strike up a conversation, sparking an undeniable connection. What follows is a relationship that contains regular ups and down in intensity, passion and love.

The novel tells the coming-of-age story of two youngsters growing up, going to college in Dublin, travelling and most importantly: how they cannot stay away from each other. The 266 pages of the book form a never ending cycle of love and distance between Marianne and Connell of which you can be certain it will continue long after the written story has ended.

Feelings and thoughts of the two protagonists are described in such a manner that it is inevitable not to immerse in the story. The reader feels exactly what they are supposedly feeling. Yet, it feels as though neither Connell nor Marianne ever reach a point of extreme emotions: passivity is adeptly deployed as a form of art. This leaves a relatively neutral feeling of never quite reaching a high or low, but an extremely empathic one at that.

It is clear that Rooney dedicated a certain degree of attention and intent to every word, no matter how effortless they might come across. She tells a modern story of love and friendship in which both parties are drawn to each other by a force that seems to be beyond their control. The intensity is not just present for the protagonists; it also gets under the skin of the reader.

About Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney is an Irish author, born in 1991 and currently residing in Dublin, Ireland. In 2017 Rooney won The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award followed by the Waterstones' Book of the Year Award in 2018 for Normal People. This second novel was also long-listed for The Man Booker Prize 2018.

Her debut novel Conversations with Friends was first published by Faber and Faber on May 25th 2017.