My adventures in reading broadly continue this summer. Enjoy this book review of Normal People by Sally Rooney, a relationship drama about two young people from a working class town in Ireland. See their relationship progress from high school through college. The critically acclaimed book was turned into a Hulu mini-series in 2020.
Every book I seem to read seems to color knowledge of some part of the world. True, both main characters in this book are white, cis-gender people like myself, I enjoyed learning about small town Ireland and Dublin in the recent past. One interesting word I learned in this book is the word Cultchie which traslates to milk drinker. It is a slang term for an sophisticated country dweller. One of the main characters, Connell, is called several times while he is attending Trinity College in Dublin.
Title of Book: Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Date of Publication: 2018
Book Gene: Fiction, Literary Romance
Number of pages: 304
Setting: Small town Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin 2011-2015
Synopsis of the book: Connell and Marianne are in their final year of secondary school when they fall in love. Connell is an intelligent, shy, popular football star. Marianne is an equally talented student who is both outspoken and extremely unpopular. Connell’s mother is the housecleaner for Marianne’s family’s mansion. They come from a working-class, seaside, Irish town called Carricklea. Their young affair is intense and secret at Connell’s insistence. Marianne encourages Connell to reach further with his university applications and he applies and is accepted to Trinity College in Dublin at Marianne’s encouragement. The pair break up before summer break and do not see each other again in until they are well into their first year at Trinity College in the more urban setting of Dublin. This time, the tables are turned however and Marianne is now the popular one while Connell struggles to fit in with the wealthy students at Trinity. They reignite their romance. The novel follows through all four years of their studies at Trinity College. Several times they separate and are brought back together. Connell struggles with social anxiety and class anxiety as he was born to a teenage mother and never knew his father. Marianne struggles to conquer her low self-esteems and deal with the demons of her complicated family life. The main characters push and pull on each other as they grow into adults.
Why I Chose this book: I read about this book and others by Sally Rooney in the New York Times in mid-May. I wrote the titles of her books down in my notebook to remind myself that I would like to look for them in the library. I must not have been paying much attention to the book world over the past few years because apparently Sally Rooney, is a big deal. I gather this from the number of New York Times articles that are written about her. One of her other books, Conversations With Friends just was made into a different Hulu series that premiered in May. (BTW: Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn is in Conversations With Friends).
Once I got my Kindle, I found that Normal People was almost immediately available on Libby and I was able to check it out right away.
You might be asking yourself, Katie, did you know this book was made into a 12 episode, 30 minute drama series on Hulu in 2020? Did you watch it before you read the book? Will you watch it now?
So the answers to those questions are: 1) I knew it was a TV series, but I don’t remember seeing the preview before I read the book. My husband insists that we only saw the preview for the Hulu show only about 100 times before watching our nightly episode of American Dad on Hulu. 2) I did not watch the show before reading the book. 3) I might watch the show now that I have read the book but not necessarily. I thought that the book had a lot of tension in it especially for Marianne and I tolerate tension much better when I read it than when I see it. That being said, there are some part of the book that I won’t mind seeing on the small screen. I read some reviews of the Hulu series that said that the show had dreamier quality than they book and lighter tone, which made me more interested in watching it.
My Thoughts on Normal People: I really liked this book. I almost had too many feelings for the main characters. They really go through a lot mentally in this book. The book deals heavily with the power dynamics of romantic relationships and how that dynamic can change over time.
Also Marianne has quite a stormy relationship with her family and there were times when it was rough to read about the unkind treatment that was hurled at her from her brother and mother. Without giving away spoilers, she also gets into some weird relationships outside of her relationship with Connell while in University.
I liked the way Sally Rooney moved the story along. She did not allow the reader to wallow too long in any one particular scene/ setting/ feeling. There are difficult parts in the book but Rooney keeps the story moving. The characters grow and adapt as the story moves along and ultimately the reader is glad at the ending that the characters have persevered.
All and all, I very much enjoyed Normal People and recommend it to anyone who likes books about feelings and relationships. Though not light and fluffy it might make a good vacation read. I am going to read Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends when it becomes available for borrowing from my library’s Libby library.
Love your blog. I’m reading – a lot. Mostly I read mysteries – more often than not- British mysteries. I have kindle unlimited, so the books I read are usually from Authors who haven’t quite hit it big yet – but I enjoy those books. I like done of these books so much, that the characters become like old friends And I hate to lose them at the end of the story.
Hi Aunt Heidi,
Thank you for liking my blog. Isn’t Kindle fun? I almost never read mysteries but it isn’t because I don’t like them. Maybe I will read a mystery this summer. Are you on Goodreads? If so we should figure out how to become friends on it.