Playing like a movie in your mind, each scene of Sally Rooney’s novel, Normal People, is filled with so much drama and suspense that you can’t even remember flipping each page. It is a captivating and heart-wrenching story about high school lovers going through setbacks and triumphs as they move through their lives into their college years. Their contrasting lives pass one another in ways that create bittersweet emotions for not only the characters but the reader as well.
Rooney takes you on a journey of the two main characters, Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron, both the same age, from the same small town of Carricklea, Ireland, but living drastically different lives. Connell is a somewhat closed-off popular boy in their high school, whereas Marianne is seen as an outcast by her peers; some might even say a “freak”. However, she is rich and Connell is not. As a matter of fact, his mother is the cleaning lady for Marianne’s enormous and beautiful white mansion.
While the novel is written without the use of many ostentatiously exciting words, the style perfectly represents the emotions of these two characters. Every word that comes out of their mouths feels real. There is no need to be flashy or exuberant with how they speak because that is not how they are as people. Take Connell for example, each sentence about him really allows you to understand how he really is feeling and who he is as a person. After a very serious discussion, Connell thought he “could go after her now, roll the window down, shout at her to get back in…Instead he sits in the driver’s seat, head tipped back against the headrest, listening to his own idiotic breathing.” These uses of words like idiotic and his sense of impulse and inner thoughts give him the depth of character that makes him, him. If it was written differently in any sense, Connell wouldn’t be the boy he is.
t can be frustrating when an author writes characters like they know they are characters. They should feel real, and Marianne and Connell do. You can see them in every scene. You can hear them in every quote.
The novel starts as Marianne is sitting on her kitchen counter and gets a knock on the door. Connell is there to pick up his mother. “She’s holding out the jar of chocolate spread. He presses his hands down slightly further into his pockets, as if trying to store his entire body in his pockets all at once.” This is how they interact with each other at the beginning, small and seemingly awkward conversations during the few times a week they share moments at the mansion.
At school, Connell ignores Marianne like everyone else does, pretending like they have never even spoken a single word to each other. “People know that Marianne lives in the white mansion with the driveway and that Connell’s mother is a cleaner, but no one knows of the special relationship between these facts.”
As the book moves on, Connell and Marianne’s awkward friendship develops into a romance that Connell requests they keep private, just between them two. No one else in school seems to know about it and that is exactly what Connell wanted. Behind the scenes he shows compassion and love for Marianne, but in front of people, he acts as if he doesn’t know a thing about her, as if he wasn’t intimate with her just the night before. When she would come over it is described that “Before he lets her in he looks over her shoulder, to make sure that no one has seen her arrive.” Marianne goes along with his plan without any complaint, not because that is what she particularly wants, but because that is what Connell wants.
It isn’t hard to see that Marianne never expresses her wants and desires to a much extent and quietly goes along with whatever the other person wishes from her. It is an especially heavy thing to notice and all you ever want is the best for Marianne. She goes through endless struggles in her life, some of which we never really get a full explanation or understanding of. But, this is one of the things that almost makes this book stronger; this sense of the unknown that fills your mind. There are so many unanswered questions and so many curiosities that come to you as a reader. While this can seem troublesome at times, it adds depth to the characters and a sense of privacy that even we don’t get a dive into. There are always things that will keep us thinking even after we finish the novel. It makes you want to talk and wonder and imagine what might be going on. That is what makes a book good.
Throughout the majority of the story Connell seems and honestly is an asshole, to say the least. He shows little consideration for Marianne’s real feelings, especially in high school, and tends to blame it on his ever-lingering anxiety. Constantly as a reader, you are angry at him for how he is acting. However, Rooney writes his anecdotes in a way that makes you go on this back-and-forth emotional journey of absolutely despising Connell and then later on sympathizing with him and hoping for him to succeed in life. It is enticing. On the other hand, Marianne cares too much about what other people want and this causes her to be pushed around by various people. She never seems to really grasp an understanding of herself and it makes you worry about her.
Later on, both Marianne and Connell end up at Trinity in Dublin for university. During this time there is a continuous feeling of that typical “Will they? Won’t they?” ordeal. They go back and forth between lovers, making you wonder how they will end up in the end.
As this book moves through its anything but a smooth journey, Marianne and Connell go through different friends, different lovers, and different places, but are constantly a piece in each other’s confusing and emotionally stricken lives. They are one of the few things that have always come back. It creates a bond between them that at times seems like even they don’t understand, but rely on. And while it can seem uncomfortable and even antagonizing at times, it provides this powerful sensation of reliability and normality that is longed for.
The way Sally Rooney writes this story is incredibly captivating, making you try to continuously predict what might happen next. One second you could feel like screaming at the top of your lungs out of anger and the next you could be smiling ear to ear. There is no putting the book down until getting to something that seems like some sort of resolution or you won’t be able to get it off your mind. It is creatively riveting and magnetic.