The Book:
Normal People by Sally Rooney, 2019
The Characters:
Connell
Marianne
The Plot (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.
The Ending:
Connell moves to America to pursue his writing career, and Marianne lets him go pretty much emotionlessly.
The Review:
This book made my skin crawl a bit with how awkward the communication between Connell and Marianne was. Like, why couldn’t they ever just say what they g-d meant?? Why be so difficult?! I get that that was the point, and it’s a huge credit to Sally Rooney for me to react so strongly to a book. She is certainly an extremely talented author. But some of Connell and Marianne’s interactions (and lack thereof) gave me anxiety.
Besides Marianne and Connell, there was very little depth given to the other characters. I would’ve liked more description of Marianne’s family life, particularly her brother, in order to understand her better as a character. Maybe then her refusal to tell Connell what she was feeling would make more sense? I feel like that would have made her somewhat more relatable.
I watched the Hulu show after reading the book and had the same opinion. It was pretty true to the book for the most part, if I recall correctly. I do love Daisy Edgar-Jones, so that redeemed the show somewhat for me.
If you’ve already read Normal People, did you watch the show? How do you think they compared?
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