Book Review : Sally Rooney - Normal People (2018)
Irish actor Paul Mescal has enraptured popular culture over the last three years and it makes total sense that he did. He’s manly and handsome in a conventional way without being rugged. He exudes a quiet, thoughtful sensibility without even opening his mouth. He’s the ideal, supportive bro and the perfect life partner at the same time. Only him could’ve turned a tragically named series like Normal People into a cult hit for sensitive hipsters. What I didn’t know is that he did it by embodying already great material.
Normal People is originally a novel by Sally Rooney and it’s some type of major paradigm shift for young people, art and mental health discourse as a whole. At least it should be.
In case you’ve been living under a rock since 2021, Normal People tells the story of popular, but insanely anxious highs school student Connell and uppity loner Marianne who are secretly in love. Connell doesn’t want their relationship to be public for fear of reprisal from his friends circle, but feels compelled to take care of the young woman who sees him for who he really is. As they’re growing up and moving on with their lives, they can’t seem to get away from each other and to be comfortable together either.
Emotional Impressionism and the Youth of Today
I know what you’re going to say and I agree: books about the interior lives of zoomers aren’t my area of expertise. But it doesn’t mean that Normal People isn’t great enough to be appreciated by any reader, though. It totally is. There isn’t a lot going on, except for a bunch of angst-ridden teenagers not being nice to one another, but it’s what’s great about it. Because we’ve been through all the situations depicted in Normal People (or almost) without necessarily being able to pinpoint and understand our emotions.
Rooney’s powerful emotional expressionism is anchored by Connell, a sensitive and mature young man who isn’t afraid to think for himself and shows the courage to voice these thoughts whenever the situation demands it. His honest and vulnerability are what suckerpunches Marianne, forcing her to finally open up to someone. That and Connell is a hot piece of ass who every girl in their high school fawns over, but once again this is a realistic wrinkle. Young people spontaneously come together like that.
You don’t need to be of the same social status or class. Aesthetic considerations are ancillary to emotional connexion and the mechanics of blossoming desire. In that sense, Sally Rooney’s writing reminded me of Marcel Proust’s. Instead of exploring the depth of human memory, it delves into the complexity of human feelings and the inherent wounds we can cause to one another’s mental health by deliberately not wanting to look at yourself. Normal People will very much put you in an introspective mood.
Romanticizing Mental Health Issues
But it’s not all roses and fairies. I had my issues with Normal People. Mostly that it romanticizes mental health problems quite a bit and that it turns solvable problems into a star-crossed lovers story. I got behind everything that happens in Normal People up to a point where Connell’s friend Eric tells him everyone knew all along about his relationship to Marianne and that no one gave a fuck. It should’ve been the end of the story right there for the emotionally literate Connell. It should’ve been the start of the happily ever after.
Well, it ain’t and it’s mostly Connell’s fault. As Marianne’s character is evolving away from her one true love, she tries her best to surrender to someone. She goes from man to man only to find partners who don’t exactly honor her vulnerability. They rather exploit it and use it in order to improve their own self-perception and Connell would’ve spared Marianne all the heartache in the world, had he just taken the responsibility to heal. He had every tool in order to do so, but decided to wallow away from her. It’s frustrating.
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Even though I’m being picky, I thought Normal People was a fantastic read. It has an immersive quality to it that makes you appreciate how complex and layered human beings can be. It's a testament to how beautiful the experience of being alive can be. Even though it's technically a novel where "nothing happens", Normal People offers kaleidoscopic insight into young, tortured psyches that is well worth reading. Certain stories just transcend genres or perferrences and I believe Normal People is one of them.
