Normal People by Irish author Sally Rooney was longlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2018. It is a contemporary fiction that explores the twists and turns of the relationship between high school then university students Connell and Marianne. The two come from very different social settings, with Connell’s mother working as a domestic for Marianne’s wealthy family. They begin a relationship in secret, largely because Connell struggles to link himself to Marianne’s social pariah status. In university the tables turn and Connell’s introversion keeps him on the outside while Marianne becomes the attractive social butterfly. Over the next few years their relationship is on and off with other people intervening, but despite their breakups they always care for each other and are always drawn back together. The story also explores their mental health struggles, related to Marianne’s dysfunctional family and Connell’s depression.

This was a well-written book. The audio-narration by Aoife McMahon was excellent with a beautiful soothing Irish voice. I confess I lost some engagement about the ⅔ mark and felt somewhat ripped off by the ambivalent ending. ( )

Did not want to read this for so long mainly because I had already seen the series and was not the biggest fan in the world. The book is much better than the series though and i thoroughly enjoyed it! ( )

As a smart anxious depressive social oddball in high school/college myself this book was sorta right up my alley, though I read Zola alone at my locker instead of Proust, and approved of Marx rather than actually read him. The stuttering on-again-off-again fumbling relationship between Connell and Marianne also rang a few bells. So it worked for me and was a great book to read after Nabokov's Ada, which also features two intelligent young people and their kinky messy relationship, but where Nabokov was soulless and generally style over substance, Rooney is substance and genuine humanity over style, which edges close to YA territory but doesn't quite seem to fit there. ( )

3.5/5- author thoughtfully conveys emotional nuances of love and relationships between young people in an eileen chang kind of way. she captures the emotional realities of the 2 characters in these little vignettes that are quite lovely and i suspect they will resonate with me for some time. that said, these same ideas are revisited over and over again. so by the end of the book, these characters largely remain unchanged. they exhibit very little emotional growth (marianne especially) and there are no repercussions to their lack of change.

there are moments of profound emotional depth scattered throughout but the characters remain undercooked and the story suffers because of it.

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Overall I enjoyed this book. Some of it was pretty brutal which made me rate it lower. I listened to it and the brogue made it interesting. I recommend the book. ( )