Sally Rooney you’ve done it again - gone and penned another favourite and this time I honestly had no complaints or minor gripes. NONE. It is perfect. She is perfect. I am a fangirl and I do not care.
.
Once again we are presented with some at times unlikeable protagonists and we come to know them intimately, at times it feels like you even begin to know them more than you know yourself. Rooney has this impeccable eye for seeing right through people, right through their flaws and struggles and hang ups and just laying it all bare on the paper in such a manner that it was seemingly without thought, and yet the effect it has on her readers is profound. I actually felt unsettled at times, of course they’re fictional protagonists and no one will have experienced their exact situation, but occasionally there will be such a sliver of undeniable truth before you that it’s like peering into your own head on the page before you.
.
It’s with this same unerring precision that Rooney dismantles the ways and pretensions of the upper and middle classes, usually in academic settings but also in the professional world, seamlessly blending politics and class issues with mental health and the complexities of relationships. I truly believe there is something in this book for everyone, and if you’re into EVERY issue in the book, well. You’re gonna have a hell of a time and can join the cult of Rooney with the rest of us.
.
Immediately after finishing it I went and read Even If You Beat Me and Mr Salary online on @lunchpoem’s advice. I hate reading on my phone, but such was my need for more Rooney in my life. I honestly could have read 169201 more pages of Normal People (preferably until Marianne and Connell die peacefully in each other’s arms á la The Notebook), but as it is, it’s a beautifully controlled story that is firmly in my 2019, and possibly all-time, favourites.