Book Review: Normal People
Originally published July 2020
Hey angels. Remember the aforementioned books that I claimed to be reading? Well: I hope you aren’t bored of book reviews. If you haven't heard of Normal People then you obviously are living on the part of the internet that Hulu ads don’t reach. Yes, that young, sexually frustrated, white couple in the ads for the new TV series “Normal People” first came from the mind of novelist Sally Rooney. I did read the book first, and I recommend doing so, but this time, it's really just on principle. The show does a beautiful job translating the book's tone and characters to screen, in a way that gives me hope for adaptions. Each episode is 20 minutes long, allowing the tensions in each moment of the characters' lives to remain in focus perfectly, and in this quarantine day and age, who doesn't want some steamy TV to watch? OK back to the book though. I expected a quick and fairly unsurprising read: I’ve perused my fair share of romantic contemporary fiction. I was quickly surprised, however, at how unique this story became.
The story circulates the tender and tenuous relationship between Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan, who (intentionally or not) find themselves together in most of the chapters of their young lives. Marianne comes from a wealthy, cold, and abusive family, while Connell lives with his playful, kind and single mother, Lorraine, who cleans houses to get by. When Connell starts picking his mother up from Marianne’s house after school, it becomes immediately clear that there is something strong and complicated between them. In the privacy of Marianne’s home, they are able to exchange glances, words, and touches. Outside of the private world between them, however, things always seem to become twisted and confused. Rooney allows both Marianne and Connell their fair share of flaws and secrets. The pair are inherently flawed, both making mistakes that destroy each other out of fear, selfishness, and ignorance. Despite their issues, they cannot stop reaching out for each other because of the something that is so strong between them.
This was one of those books that I took my time reading because I was trying to savor Rooney's sentence construction and description. Even with all my effort to pace myself, the book flew by. The prose is simple, using description in breathtaking moments that allows readers to understand the words unsaid between Marianne and Connell, without simplifying the depth of their feelings or their mistakes. Mostly, however, I was struck by how real this love story was, in both its delicate and difficult moments. In my own experience, I’ve watched relationships fall apart because of the fragility that comes with deep feelings. It seems that, especially in the age of hookup culture, we try our best to remove meaning from relationships because stuff that means something is so fragile you don’t want to touch it. Ya feel? Reading about Connell and Marianne’s connection and their subsequent fear of connecting felt like looking through a window and seeing the loves and lives of the people around me, fictionalized. Reading about the way non-relationships create ripples and waves throughout our lives is worth the price of entry. Normal People asks what it means when your relationship is both nothing and everything, and it comments on the vulnerabilities of love, youth, and inexplicable connection. I think it’s worth picking up, especially if you’ve been in a relationship that's labeled as “?" in your brain.
...and for all you Normal People out there, here’s a playlist to go along with your reading:
