Worth A Read Yes and No
Length 273
Quick Review The cliché story of the weird girl and the cool guy falling in love in secret and trying to make it work through college but with a lot of sex and bad communication.
I had planned on writing this after binge watching the show version on Hulu, but life and puppies. I will watch it and do an updated review or side-by-side review. I’ll do a something.
Normal People is one of those books where it’s an almost new take on a very old cliché. Girl is rich. Girl isn’t cute, but she’s not not cute. Girl is weird. Girl is not popular. Boy is poor. Boy is hot. Boy is cool. Boy is very popular. They are both deeply misunderstood by everyone. They figure out the other just gets them. They fall in love because he sees past her weird façade and she doesn’t care he’s poor. They go to college. They don’t break up because they were never actually together, but they’re not flinging it anymore. They get back together, but not actually together because why have that conversation. On and on and on.
Cliché
What is interesting about Normal People is the way Rooney tells the story. The narration is both impersonal and familiar. The narrator seems to be ambivalent at best, while also detailing all the sordid tidbits of scandal and emotion the entire time, meaning the narrator gives a shit but doesn’t want to seem so. Weird, because that’s exactly how the two main characters act. It’s the stupid game of who cares less wins, but everyone actually loses when there is a lack of communication and vulnerability. Oops, I just gave away the moral of the story, but if you have a brain, you’ll pick up on it within the first chapter or so. Pst, it’s also the story of gaslighting and abuse, which makes it more interesting to read because Rooney handles it pretty well.
My first thought when reading it though, ‘Oh my god, where are the quotation marks?’ The dialogue isn’t even italicized. It was really frustrating. I get it. It’s a style thing. But come on. I want my quotation marks. The chapters skip ahead anywhere from a few days to several months and start in the middle of the action. The narrator fills in the blanks and missed events in an intelligent way. Rooney does an excellent job handling flashbacks without calling attention to them or making them awkward. Though cliché, the book pulls the reader through by ending each chapter on a cliff hanger worth reading on.
I love the way Rooney handles group dynamics and group mind. It can be a complicated and difficult relationship to take on as because when it’s bad, it is really bad. She does a great job showing the complexities of group mind and how it can sway even strong and independent minds. I also loved the shitty depiction of women. As much as I want all women to be supportive and wonderful, that’s just not realistic. Women can be as anti-woman as men, and sometimes, the impact is worse.
I wouldn’t call it a great novel, but Normal People is an interesting read. Rooney has an interesting mind and a great talent for shaping sentences and plots. All the sex made me uncomfortable because sex scenes make me uncomfortable. I’m looking forward to watching the show, but not so much the sex bits.
Memorable Quotes
“…she usually felt confined inside one single personality, which was always the same regardless of what she did or said.”
bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Book Depository
Title: Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Publisher: Hogarth
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781984822178
