Fiction – hardcover; Faber & Faber; 288 pages; 2018.
Sally Rooney’s Normal People has had so many rave reviews and won so many prizes and accolades — the latest, The Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, was bestowed last week — that I’m not sure I can add anything new to the conversation.
But what I can do is give you my reaction to this stylish novel, which is essentially an on-off romance between two people from the same Irish country town over the course of four years (2011 to 2015).
Brief overview
For those of you that may not yet have read the book, here’s a brief overview. Marianne and Connell both attend the same secondary school on the west coast of Ireland, but Marianne is in a different socio-economic class to Connell because Connell’s mother works as a cleaner at Marianne’s house.
The pair are different in other ways: Marianne is a loner and regarded by her classmates as a bit kooky and someone to avoid, while Connell is popular and good-looking and leads a hectic social life.
But both are academically minded and good students, and this is what brings them to the attention of one another, a mutual respect for their brains and intellectual capabilities. Secretly, they become friends, then lovers, but no one knows about their relationship, which is kept hidden from fellow classmates — it’s really only Connell’s mother that twigs there’s something going on between the two of them.
The book charts the ups and downs of this unspecified relationship as the pair leave school, move from the village they’ve both grown up in and forge new lives in Dublin, where they attend Trinity, Marianne to study history and politics, Connell to study English.
Unusual structure
Normal People is structured in an interesting way. It’s very much a narrative composed of set pieces framed around scenes — in bedrooms, in kitchens, at parties, in cars — that are essentially people talking but which give great insight into the individual character’s thoughts and behaviours and fears and hopes.
Indeed, this is a dialogue-driven novel but there is not a single quotation mark in sight. It’s written in such a way that it’s perfectly clear when people are speaking and who is doing it. (I heard Sally Rooney speak at her only London event earlier this month where she explained that using quotation marks would just add extra clutter on the page that wasn’t needed. )
Paradoxically, it’s often the things that people don’t say in this story that provides its edgier moments: when characters hold back from making confessions or being completely honest or not making the most of the opportunity to steer the conversation in ways that would make their lives easier but which might cause pain or embarrassment in the short term.
The narrative itself jumps forward in spurts, with each chapter heading indicating how much time has passed since the last chapter — for instance “Four Months Later (August 2011)” and “Three Months Later” (March 2014)” — giving a sense of movement and fast pace to what is essentially a deeply nuanced and measured story.
But did I like it?
I have to admit that I thought the book dragged in places and I didn’t think there was enough tension between the characters. I wanted more action, perhaps more resolution, between Marianne and Connell. I kept waiting for something to happen, something big that would formalise their relationship or finish it. I don’t think it’s a plot spoiler to say that this doesn’t happen.
But what I did like — and it took me a while to come to this realisation — is the ways in which Marianne and Connell’s relationship is influenced by the exterior forces of class and money, by their own sense of self-worth (or lack thereof) and desire to be “normal”, and their inherent mutual attraction regardless of circumstance or upbringing.
I also liked how Rooney occasionally shows how some issues, such as domestic violence, cut across the class divide. (It wasn’t until I heard Rooney speak at the event I attended that I discovered she calls herself a Marxist; with hindsight, I can very much see that influence in her work, though I would not call this book political; it’s much more subtle than that.)
Normal People is essentially a universal story about individuals finding their place in a world that is complex, one that has obstacles in place which may hinder opportunities for success, whether because of class, gender or upbringing. And yet it also shows how social mobility is (occasionally) possible, how we can influence each other for the better and find ways to seek love and happiness against the odds. It ends on a hopeful note.
That said, I still liked Conversations with Friends better.
Added extra
If you are interested, this is the aforementioned event I attended at the beginning of May, which has been recorded in full by the London Review of Books, which hosted the evening in the gorgeous surrounds of St George’s Church in Bloomsbury, London.
This is my 3rd book for the 2019 Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award and my 19th for #TBR40. I bought it late last year after a member of my book group raved about it. I treated myself to the Waterstones’ exclusive hardback edition.
Reading Matters 
Some people apparently like ‘Conversations with Friends’ better, you included. Others prefer ‘Normal People’ like myself. They both are really good. I guess the reason I favored ‘Normal People’ is that I could more closely identify with the characters.
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Agreed: they’re both really good, I just preferred the former because the dynamic worked a bit better (three people as opposed to two) for me.
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I have heard that a lot of people love this book, but haven’t read that much about the details of it – so thanks for that. I tend to find romantic relationships the least interesting thing to read about, so I wasn’t sure about this one – and I do get cross when authors don’t use speech marks. I suspect I’ll read it in five years’ time or something!
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To be honest, this one doesn’t scream Simon T to me … but hey, maybe when you do get around to reading it you’ll be pleasantly surprised by it.
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I think you know my feelings on Normal People by now! I was disappointed with it but I agree that issues of class and money were handled well.
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Yes, I remember you saying very early on that you much preferred Conversations with Friends. Great minds think alike, Cathy! 😉
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Interesting! I bought this on Saturday although I may well not get around to reading it for some time. Conversations with Friends grew on me to the extent that it became one of my books of the year, not something I would have imagined when I first started it.
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I will be very interested in hearing what you make of this one, Susan. I did wonder whether I might be too old for this one — it’s “very millennial”. I have to admit I wasn’t impressed with it, but after hearing Rooney speak about it I’ve come to realise that it achieves everything she set out to achieve and it has consequently grown on me. Not quite sure it’s worthy of ALL the prizes though.
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Definitely not my demographic either!
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I keep changing my mind about buying this – I was close to it yesterday but then another member of the book club was nearby and said that she thought it ok but not as good as all those awards/accolades would have us believe. So my copy went back on the table while I pontificate further….
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LOL. I’m not sure it’s worthy of all those awards/accolades either. It’s an interesting read about normality and growing up in the modern world, but for me it lacked a certain tension/dynamic and I kind of grew bored with these two characters and all their toing and froing.
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It also struck me a little in reading your commentary that it had shades of One Day…
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I’ve not read One Day, so I can’t make that comparison. It did remind me, however, of Belinda McKeon’s rather wonderful and much underrated “Tender” which shares similar themes and is also set in Ireland, albeit 15 years earlier than “Normal People”
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It’s so interesting to hear about your responses to this book, particularly the structure and pacing. I read about half of this novel over the Christmas break before putting it aside, purely because I felt that it wasn’t for me. (I suppose I just wanted to see what all the buzz was about given all the positive reports.) It was very well written, particularly in terms of capturing those times of uncertainty in an evolving relationship, but I didn’t feel that anything particularly dramatic was going to happen by the end. So, I can totally relate to your desire for more in the way of action or resolution – that’s definitely what I was hoping for too!
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To be honest, I suspect I might have put this aside half way through as well, but I had bought a ticket to see the author and wanted to read it before the event. Attending the event and hearing her speak about her goals and what she was wanting to achieve with this novel helped me understand it a bit more. I can see what she was doing, but not everyone has the luxury of hearing her explain her motives etc. so I can totally understand why this might not resonate so well with others who can only judge the book on what they read… I do think this is a book that especially appeals to a younger audience than me because this is how they live their lives now…
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I enjoyed Conversations, so bought this as soon as it was released… just haven’t got to it yet 😬 It’s on my 20 Books of Summer list (hope the formatting is okay in Kindle and the lack of punctuation isn’t irritating).
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