Normal People

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.

Review: It's 2011 and Connell and Marianne are seniors in high school together but far from friends. Connell is popular, good looking, and the star of the soccer team while Marianne is a loner, intensely private, and misunderstood by the majority of her class. But Connell's mother works as a housekeeper's at Marianne's house, which brings the two into the same orbit and an intense attraction and connection develop between the two, leading to a relationship they keep hidden from their family and school. A year later, they're both at Trinity College in Dublin and the tides have turned. Marianne has finally found acceptance within a social group while Connell is now the one that is on the sidelines, no longer with a large circle of friends and paralyzed by his natural shyness. 

For years, Connell and Marianne continue to fall apart and then circle back to each other. In a maddening dance, the pair are truly only happy together but too emotionally fragile and damaged to openly discuss their feelings and remain together. Their relationship feels true to life in that many relationships are plagued by repetitive patterns of destructive behavior, just like Marianne and Connell. It also feels accurate for two very young adults who are still learning about themselves and what they want from the world to struggle to find a healthy balance with each other. Something about the torturous relationship kept me compulsively reading on, hoping that Connell and Marianne would find a way to be open and honest with each other so they could be together in a lasting way. The fluctuating nature of the third person narrative, that allowed both characters' perspectives to be shared, functioned well. 

The undeniable, electric connection between Marianne and Connell was the draw and the tease throughout this novel. This was a character study of a romance, a coming of age story of two people navigating the world sometimes together but often alone. While maddening, this was a compulsive read and Rooney did an excellent job of building interest and creating too deeply complex individuals. While not a happy story, I enjoyed the book a great deal. 

Stars: 4