Normal People Review: An Analysis of Class, Miscommunication and Situationships.

Today I discuss and review Normal People by Sally Rooney.
I go over my general reaction to the book after already watching the Normal People series twice, I discuss the general themes, and I also compare myself to Marianne!
Overall I highly recommend Normal People by Sally Rooney.

[@christabelpankhurst3027]

wow that was good. You told the story; gave a great review but exposed no spoilers. 10 ouda 10

[@realcapitalist1462]

There are so many aspects to NP that intrigue me. To focus on one, you referenced the way Connell kept Marianne a secret from his school friends. My initial reaction was there was no way I'd have kept Marianne a secret. But then I'm of a very different era. But now I can't help but wonder if the lack of a father figure had something to do with that? Had his male school friends become too much of a factor in his thinking? His subsequent utter cowardice in asking Rachel to the Debs having stood up to her bullying at the fundraiser had me shouting at the tv screen! Of course Mariannes issues also appear to stem from an absent father, but one that had apparently been highly abusive toward his wife who seems to have accepted that such behaviour as "normal". This explained why she allowed her son to take over the dominant abusive male role when her husband passed. Personally I found this idea to be a bit of a stretch for a high powered professional woman to accept but I guess it could happen. As a consequence, despite their very different backgrounds and upbringing, Marianne and Connells sense of isolation is a key factor to their coming together. On another aspect, I coincidentally have been watching KZbin clips from "Good Will Hunting" today. Have you seen that film? In one scene Will takes a bully to task for embarrassing his friend who had been trying to chat two college girls in a bar. His exposure of the guys fetishised book reading as a base for so called intellectual superiority was superb and it chimed with Connells' view of literature as performative art and his realisation of the limitations of his fellow English Lit students. Anyway, although I'm late to your review Sky, I did enjoy it. Have you read Rooneys' other books? You really should!!!

[@Ketumak]

Thanks, Sky. I enjoyed the TV adaptation and you've persuaded me to read the book. I like to ponder the title because it invites the question "What are normal people?" And I think in part the book is saying that for Connell, normal people are one thing and for Marianne they're another,. This suggests that there are no normal people after all.

[@grosshipgirl9511]

Great review! Sounds like a very interesting book. Sometimes is difficult to find realistic relationship interactions but this sounds like a good one.

[@ShannonsChannel]

Good review, Sky. I don't think I've heard of this series! Must be good if you watched it twice and read the book!

[@girlygirls35]

great review! made me want to read the book :)

[@occasionalreader]

That was interesting

[@wesleyhayden57]

It’s a terrible book