I was gifted the book “Normal People” in December 2019 by a friend living in London. “I thought I might give you something talked about at the moment,” she said, handing me a novel with an intense orange cover and words on its top: THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. Sometime later, back in Poland, I spotted Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” in a popular bookstore chain on the bestseller’s bookshelf. By that time it had already been translated into Polish. Only the cover was different. Vivid blue.
The abundancy of laudable citations on its cover, as well as inside on the first couple of pages, made me decide I should read it. Such high praises, as: “At last, a gifted literary voice for a generation” or “Timeless… A classic coming-of-age love story” made me believe I’m holding a masterpiece. Finally, I read “Normal People” and can now form an opinion of my own.
This short, accessible novel is about two young adults living nowadays. It’s about Marianne and Connell who are in an on and off relationship since late teenage years and throughout college. They go to the same high school in a fictional Irish town called Carricklea and then move on to study in Trinity College in Dublin. It’s their love story, complex, turbulent, idiosyncratic, but at the same time typical and universal. Marianne, coming from an affluent but broken home, gets along best with Connell, who is raised by a single hard-working mother. Even though they come from different social backgrounds, it’s their common youth and the quiet town Carricklea that seem to bond them most. Sally Rooney, who was twenty-seven when she wrote the novel, managed to capture on the spot the life of her contemporaries.
For me, Rooney’s book is very much about life’s stages and life’s transitions. In case of this novel – about the changes one undergoes when leaving high school to go to college, or when entering adult life right after university. Personally, I did not experience these changes smoothly or easily. Moving abroad from my hometown at the age of nineteen was one of the most difficult episodes in my life. Leaving close friends, family and my city for the sake of opening up to the world, turned out to be a heavy lesson (in fact, this transition became the cause of my long-term depression). Another strident life-experience happened a few years later when I left the protective environment of university to enter real-life conditions. Rooney shows how lonely one can end up being right after university. The relationships made in college often turn out to be too feeble or too dispersed to make them last. I was therefore reading “Normal People” with my experiences in mind and found the book to resonate with me.
I liked the way how Rooney describes high school and college. In an authentic and simple writing style she reveals the differences between these two environments. High school relationships are shown as natural and spontaneous, although not devoid of hardships, whereas university social life becomes more superficial and calculated. This is how Connell, who used to be a popular kid in school in Carricklea, is looked upon by Trinity students:
He wears nice clothes, volunteered Joanna.
Not really, said Peggy. I mean, he has a look, but it’s just tracksuits most of the time. I doubt he even owns a suit.
(…)
Well, isn’t he from a fairly working-class background? said Joanna.
Rooney shows how strenuous entering adult life can be, causing in young adults such feelings, as loneliness, detachment, estrangement, which can lead as far as depression. In university, devoid of real friendships or the company of Marianne, Connell goes through a strong depressive episode, whereas Marianne, even though she is better adapted to college life, experiences sexual abuse and eating disorders. In her book, the author portrays youth not as life’s naïve, carefree and romantic stage, but as a demanding and at the same time highly formative chapter. Rooney shows how much it takes to finally become a happy-self. To become a “normal person.”
However, what seems to stand out above the rest in the story is the romantic relationship between Marianne and Connell. “Normal People” is about today’s young love, that is, not a simple one! The protagonists meet and hang out intensely in high school, then grow apart a bit during college to reunite again afterwards. Their bond isn’t straightforward, rather intermittent and tumultuous, but it is clear for the reader that Marianne and Connell just fit together. Despite many bumps along the way, it is very much a “normal love,” that is, down-to-earth and far from ideal! Their relationship is made of ordinary situations, like drinking coffee together, watching TV, hanging out with friends, washing the dishes… The protagonists feel at home when they share life’s basic activities. By the way, Rooney is a master in describing the everyday, mundane, repetitive tasks we all have to fill out. Through her prose she somehow consecrates chores and makes them seem beautiful.
What I’ve enjoyed most about “Normal People” is Sally Rooney’s seeming effortless and clear writing style. (I love understandable writing!). I’ve also appreciated this small contemporary tale for its authenticity – I believed in the story throughout. Rooney is a careful observer of the world around her and a talented interpreter. I will follow her prose as she becomes more and more mature and ready to present other life’s facets.
But, I am still not sure we should call this book a “masterpiece” or a “classic.” Such terms ought to be used more carefully and much less often. Time will show…
