Normal People by Sally RooneyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
There's no denying that Rooney is a good writer. She has a nimble way of toggling between descriptions and interior dialogue. She also has a good grasp of the otherness we can feel within ourselves as we try to figure out who we really are. Both characters experience being "out" with the prevailing crowd, and being "in" with others. Rooney explores that dichotomy and each character's reaction with that. Marianne and Connell are each other's anchors, sometimes grounding each other, sometimes causing the other to sink. Unfortunately, perhaps unavoidably, sex gets mixed in with it all. While I felt I could see Connell's character arc, I felt like some integral part of Marianne's growth got glossed over. (view spoiler)
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suggests to Connell that the same imagination he uses as a reader is necessary to understand real people also, and to be intimate with them.
everyone knew who he was already, and there was never any need to introduce himself or create impressions about his personality. If anything, his personality seemed like something external to himself, managed by the opinions of others, rather than anything he individually did or produced. Now he has a sense of invisibility, nothingness, with no reputation to recommend him to anyone.
Their feelings were suppressed so carefully in everyday life, forced into smaller and smaller spaces, until seemingly minor events took on insane and frightening significance.
Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.
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