Normal People
Reviews
loved this book to the moon and back, gave me a new perspective on my relationships with other people
I love the way she has developed each character. totally in love with the story plot & I didn’t really expect it to end that way. Overall, a very good book
the lack of quotation marks actually wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be!! And i actually enjoyed the writing in this book my issue is i didn’t feel connected with the characters. I felt like the fly on the wall watching this go down and just going “damn thats crazy” which was kinda the exact opposite of what i thought was going to be my opinion based on how i hear people talk about this book. It’s also very fast paced and slow at the same time somehow?? I think thats just a genre element of literary fiction though. I liked how there wasn’t a bunch of filler because the lack of quotation marks makes you WORK. if you are a chronic skimmer of pages this book will not work. but also the ending was kinda abrupt and it was kinda open ended which make me feel like i didnt gain anything from this book
very intimate
idk it was like a cheesy fan fiction to me
Extremely depressing horny people
honestly whatever
so do we sue sally rooney for emotional damages or what?
Weirdly did not get confused by the lack of quotation marks
i had such great expectations for this book, and having turned the last page i almost feel guilty for not liking it... i still stand with my previous statement, that rooney is a brilliant writer, this storyline just simply didn't resonate with me. somehow it felt like a collection of cliches where the plot twist never really happened, making the story predictable and unfortunatly a bit bland.
on top of that, something about the way domestic violence is portrayed felt utterly wrong. it was as if the aim wasn’t to draw attention to a serious issue but merely to add drama to the storyline...
not a fan, but her writing is still so pure and unique that i will probably pick up intermezzo soon enough...
fav <33
I'm not sure of I enjoyed it because it's good or because it hits a bit too close to home.
oh sally rooneys writing is so good??? i literally finished this book and was sad for like an hour. not because it was particularly sad? but mainly because i resonated with the characters and felt how they felt in my early 20s. was also really interesting to see her talk about class and show how that can impact relationships.
ngl i was so confused when i read the first page when their was no quotations LOL. had to do a double take. but i didnt mind it. it made it feel like someone was just sitting down and telling me a story about this couple and i loved it. that being said can see how that would make this hard to read and probably not a book everyone would enjoy.
minha cabeça doía em algumas partes, de tanto que eu me via nela, de tanto que eu me via nele, de tanto que eu me via em situações que eu julgaria se não fossem situações que eu estaria tão presente. choro preso na garganta, pra variar. muitos pensamentos, muita analise pessoal e muita dor de cabeça.
a falta de comunicação direta deles me deixou um pouco doida, e mais uma vez, faz sentido por serem apenas pessoas normais vivendo suas vidas normais, mas é de quebrar o coração a quantidade de encontros e desencontros.
me senti cutucando uma ferida, durante toda a leitura. muita dor de cabeça.
Me gustaron un montón los personajes y el final, hay un montón de cosas que no se dicen, pero que ahí están definiendo todo
Painstakingly good
hey what the FUCK was the ending
Ich lieeebe den Schreibstil!
Nur das Ende war ein bisschen unspektakulär. Aber so ist das Leben von normalen Menschen nunmal
I couldn’t put it down, even though I knew what was going to happen from watching the show. It was intoxicating, almost too much! Fascinating study of a relationship.
closed the book and stared at the wall for a few seconds bcos wtf was that? that’s how it ends? idk u guys i did not resinate a lot with this book i did not really feel it’s entirety. i was expecting so much lol. there were moments i loved and i got frustrated with how they keep pushing each other away which is kind of the point of everything, but then it just felt repetitive and bland. idk. maybe i’d like the series more if i start watching.
so overrated rly did not enjoy at least it was short tho
Wirklich schwer dieses Buch zu bewerten.
Wenn man wirklich denkt dass die Charaktere immer nur „Ich weiß nicht“ und unsicher sind als realistisch sieht, dann ist dieses Buch was für dich.
Marrienne ist in einer reichen abusive Family aufgewachsen und wird so dargestellt dass sie sich auf die Meinung anderer nicht schert und sich immer schlechte Partner aussucht. Connel dagegen ist mit seiner Mutter aufgewachsen und er leidet unter Depressionen und Angstzustände.
Die nebenfiguren zb die Familie wurde so schlecht beschrieben. Ihr Bruder lächerlich grausam, hatten irgend wie garkeinen Zweck im Buch nur um Drama zu sorgen.
Schreibstil hat mich auch nicht angesprochen.habs zwar in 3 Tagen fertig weil ich unbedingt wissen wollte wie es endet.
Peace out
Highlights
I would never pretend not to know you Connell
lowkey surprised this line came so early
That’s money, the substance that makes the world real. There’s something so corrupt and sexy about it.
The deeper I get into adulthood the more I can agree
Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.
Connell's initial assessment of the reading was not disproven. It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about. Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing. Presumably this was how the industry made money. Literature, in the way it appeared at these public readings, had no potential as a form of resistance to anything.
Connell couldn’t think of any reason why these literary events took place, what they contributed to anything, what they meant. They were attended only by people who wanted to be the kind of people who attended them.
Is the world such an evil place, that love should be indistinguishable from the basest and most abusive forms of violence? Outside her breath rises in a fine mist and the snow keeps falling, like a ceaseless repetition of the same infinitesimally small mistake.
He doesn't remember how he got back to her house, whether he walked or took a taxi, he still doesn't know. The place had that strange unfurnished cleanliness that lonely houses sometimes have. She seemed like a person with no hobbies: no bookcases, no musical instruments. What do you do with yourself at the weekends, he remembers slurring. I go out and have fun, she said. This struck him even at the time as deeply depressing. She poured them both glasses of wine. Connell sat on the leather sofa and drank the wine for something to do with his hands.
He did gradually start to wonder why all their classroom discussions were so abstract and lacking in textual detail, and eventually he realised that most people were not actually doing the reading. They were coming into college every day to have heated debates about books they had not read. He understands now that his classmates are not like him. It's easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don't worry about appearing ignorant or conceited. They are not stupid people, but they' re not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he'll probably really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.
Connell wished he knew how other people conducted their private lives, so that he could copy from example.
Şu dünya, sevgi denen şeyi kimsenin şiddetin en adi ve aşağılık biçimlerinden ayırt edemediği kadar kötü bir yer olabilir mi?
the moment where Lorraine is like: no i can take the bus, i am disgusted by you...
She really is the mom we wished every boy we dated had
Ihre Gefühle wurde im Alltag so sorgfältig unterdrückt und in immer engere Ecken gedrängt, bis scheinbar unwichtige Anlässe eine wahnsinnige und beängstigende Bedeutung annahmen
If she was different with Connell, the difference was not happening inside herself, in her personhood, but in between them, in the dynamic.
Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t know if she would ever find out where it was and become part of it. She had that feeling in school often, but it wasn’t accompanied by any specific images of what the real life might look or feel like. All she knew was that when it started, she wouldn’t need to imagine it anymore.
felt
She has no friends and spends her lunchtimes alone reading novels. A lot of people really hate her.
damn
Connell always gets what he wants, and then feels sorry for himself when what he wants doesn't make him happy.
From a young age her life has been abnormal, she knows that. But so much is covered over in time now, the way leaves fall and cover a piece of earth, and eventually mingle with the soil. Things that happened to her then are buried in the earth of her body.
Beautiful imagery
You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.
It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.
Life is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.