Normal People by Sally Rooney

This book was everywhere towards the end of 2018. Before this, Conversations with Friends had come out, but there was much more publicity surrounding this one. I believe it won some awards, and unlike the previous, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Reviews on Goodreads were mixed, some loved it, some hated it, and there are those that had a neutral reception to it. Do I think it deserved more hype than her previous book? Meh..

Normal People definitely took me less time to read than Conversations with Friends did, but that doesn’t make it a better book. It is slightly shorter, but this time around I just had more time to read, less distractions, and, most the important; a comfy chair.

As for the review portion, I gave this book 3 stars out of 5, and it took me some time to really settle on a rating for it. I toyed for a while between giving three or four stars, because though it was enjoyable and a quick read, there was some ‘flaws’ that in a way disallowed me from going up a rating.

Contrary to Conversations with Friends, which I greatly enjoyed, I found this one hard to read. Similarly to Rooney’s previous book, there are not clear distinctions between a conversation and ongoing action that transpires throughout the novel, yet, there were several times where I felt lost while reading Normal People, mainly due to the lack of divide. Similarly, it was at times hard to follow, with chapter divisions also being a little challenging to figure out. I suppose this adds another level to the novel itself, but I’m not here to solve a mystery, I’m here for a good relaxing read.

By the end, I think I only found one quote that really stuck with me while reading the book which was quite early on which was; Being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life and then closing it behind him. It was an interesting start to the novel and a gripping start to the relationship and the dynamic of it between the two protagonists of the novel. Similarly, I feel like it can be illuminating and thought provoking to the reader and the relationships that they have encountered.

Thought I was not much of a fan of the way that this book was written, like Rooneys previous previous book, it again incorporated characters of a similar age to myself and became, at times, reflective, or inviting for self reflection. Non fiction books will always, or most of the time, inspire and provoke thought, but I find that that is not necessarily the case for fictional books, apart for the ones that I’ve encountered by Sally Rooney. I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a refreshing read, that will leave them feeling maybe a little lost, but also found, if not in the book, then maybe even in their own life.