Sally Rooney's Normal People: YA romance or literary classic?

28- year Sally Rooney releases her sophomore novel Normal People and the internet goes wild. It's one hell of a hard hand sell otherwise.

MENTIONED:

ELSEWHERE:
#normalPeople #booktube

[katiedumpleton]

As a 20 year old Irish student studying History in Trinity, Sally Rooney cracked what it's like to go there at times. It isn't as pretentious like she makes it out to be. But it was spot on what it's like to date atm. Her nuanced character development was fab

[anenthusiasticreader]

I really liked Normal People but have never thought once of it as a comedy. It was one of the most sad, lonely novels I've read in a long time. I'm totally flummoxed over whether or not I want to read Ducks, Newburyport.

[whatpageareyouon]

Having read Normal People and Conversations With Friends, I’m not sure why I find Normal People more on the cusp of the optimism of potential possibilities that uncertainty brings, while Conversations With Friends, to me, is more pessimistic and diabolical with the motives and interactions between characters, even though the qualities are quite similar (despite CWF about people in their late 20’s ish): two people too inside their own heads to be able to clearly explain that their frustration is a form of compassion, whether or not it’s perceived as selfish by the other person.
While I didn’t find Normal People to be a comedy, Rooney does have this hypnotizing way of accentuating a character’s insecurities through their misrepresented compassion toward another character that feels like a recurring running gag of sorts, pinned by this sort of familiarity to me about making fun of my own missteps of unrequited love. I feel like she manages to convey this overwhelming feeling of people feeling like they need to somehow express their interest through actions to validate their dissonance toward it, even romantically, like possibly propelled by Marianne’s family life and Connell’s financial resources, for examples. I think her third novel will be a defining moment of her buzzy readership, not that she’s responsible for keeping up the buzz shrouding her work, I can imagine it’s a lot of pressure!

[okidokiboki]

I'm not sure if I'm going to read Normal People, but I'm very much enjoying the conversation from people both pro and not-pro this book in your comments. I think this might be the first time I've checked back in on a youtube video just to read the comments

[robotnic]

Great, thoughtful review as always, David.

[TheBobbybare]

oh I saw what you did there with that final picture - Different Class (A still from the album booklet by Sheffield group Pulp) = Normal People, the album has a song called Common People.

[evam]

Honestly i didn't find normal people that great felt a lot like ya romance for ppl in their 20's, and i'm 24 year old who wasn't that impressed, felt like something i read or saw on tv thousand times before even tho i stay away from books like this but this one was so hyped on booktube i had to give it a try (but i did really love that moment when connell realized how unimportant high school stuff really is the moment it all ends, that was fantastic )

[earlsfort]

just read Normal People this weekend, didn't know this was a popular book - I live in Dublin and it epitomises my secondary school years, delighted to hear its been made into a series - will be on tv over the next few days - my quarantine viewing sorted yay

[TheBookBully]

I'm also deciding if I'll pick up Ducks, Newburyport. I feel so intimated by it, but I also will be so proud (and smug) to say I've read it.

[starian]

I have been telling people how this is totally written like a YA romance except the people are older but honestly they could be teens. Great mindless read by the pool? Yes but it’s nothing more than that. I have no clue how it got nominated for actual awards like how was it longlisted for the man booker prize?! That really blew my mind because it wasn’t anything special.

[kobiosama]

To each his own. It is to me is like what Holden Caulfield to most people.

[Tanlfc]

I just noticed inside the Tuna can is 2 person.

[melissaisreading]

Great review. I loved Normal People and Conversation with Friends. I feel like they spoke to me a little extra as a fellow Marxist. I had never read books where I 'got' almost every one of the references and that was a really special experience for me (in the least pretentious way possible lol). I love how she focuses on class relations and how they play out in relationships and groups of people. As with most things that are really popular, instagram chic, and also just really good, the chic-ness of it all makes me a little uncomfortable and bummed out. Thinking about books as status symbols or fashion accessories and what that does for the book itself, the readers, and how they read that book is a really interesting conversation and I know those are some of the same things Sally Rooney is concerned about too. She has a really great interview on yt called "Writing with Marxism" that I would totally recommend watching. Have you read any of her short stories? I really love Mr. Salary!

[LauraFreyReadinginBed]

YA BASIC, David!!

Im currently reading a 1, 000 page Neal Stephanson novel, just not that one. And im preparing to board the Ducks, Newburyport hype train on September 10th, when it's out in Canada.

[ofbooksandmen]

It seems to me that people either really love it or really hate it. This is a hard no for me. And the Salinger comparison makes me roll my eyes every time!

[jessicafoster]

It was just awful. Awful. Rooney has trouble moving the plot along, focusing too much on plot points, pushing her characters around on the board, trying to make her point, trying to cause distress. Drama occurs in very clichéd miscommunications so popular with cheesy movies and TV dramas : someone thinks one thing, the other something else, they're pulled apart. An easy step. Give us more credit, Rooney. It feels just all too shallow. What we have is a rom-com plot line, as you say (that's fine, love genre), and tactics reworked to consider things, talking points. Power. Class. Money. Social leverage. Depression. The writing too...She certainly has a weird take on how we breathe and sigh: 'He puts his hands in his pockets and suppresses an irritable sigh, but suppresses it with an audible intake of breath, so that it still sounds like a sigh'. Just odd.
Then Rooney epigraphs the master, George Eliot, at the start (I felt so much promise at this point) and it only sought to remind me, retrospectively, of whose insight into social and class interaction, and love, I wasn't reading. I mean, a solid enough novel--just no voice of our times, as pitched. And the hype spoiled it, it felt not that different from the teen books I read. Masterful PR roll out though.

[Nyledam]

Still not sure I'm interested in it but that Jane Austen comparison just got me a lot closer! :)

[JakeyRan]

Your review is so interesting. And I like her books!

[hongoroomg]

this book is appropriate for intermediate or pre intermediate readers?

[browngirlreading]

A modern classic nah this ain't it.