On the other side, it also explores Connell's anxiety and depression, and how desperately he needs Marianne in his life to make him feel normal and in control, even though he's seeing/dating other people. It's just... messed up. a b Eppel, Alan (5 July 2022). "Normal People: the self-at-best and the self-at-worst". Journal of Psychiatry Reform. 8 (5). I really cannot see why the novel made it to the Man Booker Prize longlist. And yes, perhaps it's not a one star book but at this point, this is what I feel. Normal People received wide critical acclaim. [6] It was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. [7] It was voted as the 2018 Waterstones' Book of the Year [8] and won "Best Novel" at the 2018 Costa Book Awards. [9] In 2019, the novel was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. [10] In the same year, it was ranked 25th on The Guardian 's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. [11]

Throughout the book I kept thinking why, why is this not working for me? Why I'm becoming more and more annoyed? Why don't I care? Why?? Maybe because I am no longer a target audience of the book. Rooney, Sally (2019), Normal people A Novel, Inc OverDrive, New York, ISBN 978-1-9848-4334-0, OCLC 1090829156 , retrieved 7 May 2021 {{ citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) Sheahan, Fionnán (23 May 2020). "It's Marianne's fault we can't get a government to satisfy Normal People". Irish Independent . Retrieved 23 May 2020. The author of Normal People is a self-professed Marxist... her politics seeps through her writing. It's no accident the central protagonists of the book that has captured the nation's imagination are the rich girl living in the mansion and the poor boy whose mother works as her family's cleaner. The TV version glosses over the discussions around 'The Communist Manifesto' and the feminist bible 'The Golden Notebook'. Socioeconomic class drives Marianne and Connell apart as they navigate early adulthood. Rooney uses these characters to explore how class divides keep people apart.Normal People is a story of abuse. It's the story of Marianne who goes from terrible relationship to terrible relationship and allows herself to be abused because it's all she's ever known. In a way, it's gripping because you just want Marianne to get out of this, get out of all this crap she's living with, but she just goes from bad to worse. Everything in her life is tied around Connell and his acceptance/rejection of her, and it's ridiculous because even though he doesn't actually hit her or anything, it's obvious (to me, at least) that he's an oblivious idiot who is obviously using Marianne for his own benefit. It's not to say that she didn't get anything out of it--she did--but if this is what relationships are like in the 21st century, I'm glad I'm not in one. Maybe I'm too prudish for this book. Marianne has a warped idea of "submission" and part of the story veers into something BDSM-like relationships, except Marianne did not seem to like it very much, even if she somehow craved it.

Rankin, Sally (25 November 2019). "Here are EW's top 10 fiction books of the decade". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved 20 January 2021. The novel follows the complex friendship and relationship between two teenagers, Connell and Marianne, who both attend the same secondary school in County Sligo, Ireland, and, later, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). It is set during the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, from 2011 through 2015. [5] Connell is a popular, handsome, and highly intelligent secondary school student who begins a relationship with the unpopular, intimidating, equally intelligent Marianne, whose mother employs Connell's mother as a cleaner. Connell keeps the affair a secret from school friends out of shame, but ends up attending Trinity with Marianne after the summer and reconciling. Well-off Marianne blossoms at university, becoming pretty and popular, while Connell struggles for the first time in his life to fit in properly with his peers. The two weave in and out of each other's lives during their university years, developing an intense bond that exposes their traumas and insecurities.Hagan, Rachel (31 May 2019). "The BBC Unveils Plans For Adaptation Of Normal People By Sally Rooney". Elle . Retrieved 25 September 2019. Entertainment Weekly writers ranked the book as the 10th best of the decade, with Seija Rankin writing, "Both of Sally Rooney's novels capture the millennial ethos with raw honesty and impeccable insight. But what she broke ground with in Conversations With Friends, she perfected in Normal People." [13] Awards [ edit ] Award In May 2019, BBC Three and Hulu announced that a TV series based on the novel was set to be produced. It premiered on 26 April 2020 on BBC Three and 27 April 2020 on the Australian streaming service Stan. [14] In Ireland, the series began airing on RTÉ One on 28 April 2020. The series stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell. [15] The show garnered critical acclaim and became BBC iPlayer's most-watched show of 2020 with over 62 million streams that year. [16] Themes [ edit ] Elif Batuman, author of my favourite "The Idiot" said: "I couldn't put "Normal People" down - I didn't think I could love it as much as "Conversations with Friends", but I did. Sally Rooney is a treasure. I can't wait to see what she does next." Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheahan described the book as a polemic, noting that Rooney has described herself as a Marxist and that the book features discussions about The Communist Manifesto document and Doris Lessing's feminist novel The Golden Notebook. [12]

Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can't. Normal People has themes of love across class division. The main characters, Marianne and Connell, know each other from school but also because Connell's mother is a cleaner for Marianne's mother. [17] This establishes the class divide in their relationship. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life-changing begins.

Summary

Nice enough writing and observations but somewhat dull and infantile. The very notion of the two people, seemingly perfect for each other, ruining each other's lives over and over again drove me mad. It became repetitive, then it became boring. I just could not stand reading about on-off relationship of these young damaged adults while such important matters like domestic abuse, depression and mental health in general were hugely overlooked.

Normal People easily biggest series on BBC iPlayer with 62.7 million streams in 2020". Radio Times. 8 December 2020.

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Sally Rooney is an incredible author. She has a really interesting, almost callous writing style, that makes all of her books feel both detached and overly emotional. They're almost written in the style of the voice in your head- obviously biased toward you, but talking as if it's fact because your own brain will always see your perspective as true. Similarly is the writing structured, like a consistent stream of thought. I can see how that isn't for everyone, but I found it really easy to follow and loved it so much I bought all of her other books too. (They're all great) a b "Announcing the Women's Prize 2019 Longlist". Women's Prize for Fiction. 4 March 2019 . Retrieved 4 March 2019.