Eh…

 I love getting wrecked by some good literature. Normal People gave me what I was hungry for: an intimate look into someone else’s life that has been abstracted and allows me to reflect on some larger themes. Practically speaking, the relationship between Marianne and Connell is awful. Wow they literally just never truly speak to each other. But I wasn’t personally reading this book for the practicality. 

Rooney’s writing is deceptively simple, conveying so much with what is not said by either her or her characters. I love that. I love when an author can capture a feeling, an urge, a longing in so many words. This whole book made me feel like I was 23 again, sitting at a tiny sunlit table somewhere quiet, looking out the window at the 3pm summer sun, feeling melancholy.

I like to read books without really reading the synopsis, so I had no idea this book took place during *the situation* of 2020. I also didn’t know I was ready to read a book about this time in our collective lives. Turns out, Erdrich’s incredibly profound writing led me through without a hitch. We follow Tookie, a woman with her own private ghosts who ends up being haunted by a literal ghost in the bookshop she works in. I loved how self-referential Erdrich is in this story. The fictional bookstore owner is named Louise, the bookstore has a blue door like Erdrich’s real-life store, etc. This book is about the ghosts we carry around with us, and how one fictional character navigated the pandemic and the social reckoning of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. It was difficult to read at times, but worth it.

Wow this book was very moving. I didn’t know what I was in for when I began, but I liked where the author took me. I particularly loved Edgar’s and Tsala’s POVs. Sonja kind of freaked me out a bit, but I think that’s the point. Edgar’s POV made me feel disoriented and full of anxiety the entire time. Well done.