“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”
—Normal People by Sally Rooney
Marianne and Connell….meet in high school…meet up again in college.
Marianne and Connell are both deeply flawed characters. Marianne is a brilliant loner in high school, whereas Connell is a star student/athlete. They come from different socio-economic backgrounds. They begin a secret relationship in high school when Connell picks up his mother from her work at Marianne’s home.
Fast forward to Trinity College in Dublin…Marianne and Connell run into each other again. This time Marianne has friends and a social life, and Connell feels lost and uncomfortable. This begins the back and forth relationship of these two characters, who are trying to find normalcy in their daily lives.
This is an interesting, intuitive, touching novel. Sally Rooney uses no quotation marks throughout the book, which I became used to right away. As a reader, one realizes how difficult it is for Marianne and Connell to communicate. They definitely have issues, but they have a fierce bond with each other. I am halfway through the Netflix adaptation of the book, and I am enjoying seeing the characters come to life on the screen. This is not a romance novel, but a love story under the genre of contemporary fiction. It won’t be for everyone, but I really enjoyed the novel.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Other books I plan to read by Sally Rooney:
- Her latest novel is Beautiful World, Where Are You (Published September 7, 2021)
- Conversations With Friends (Published July 11, 2017)
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