Name: den's review of Mr Salary by Sally Rooney
Item: Mr Salary
Rating: 3
Author: den

Sally Rooney

My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all. Years ago, Sukie moved in with Nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable. Sally Rooney is one of the most acclaimed young talents of recent years. With her minute attention to the power dynamics in everyday speech, she builds up sexual tension and throws a deceptively low-key glance at love and death.

Mr Salary

figments of one's sanity

My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at 

We used to watch films together like that, and he would touch my hair in that exact way, distractedly. I found his distraction comforting. In a way I wanted to live inside it, as if it was a place of its own, where he would never notice I had entered.

My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all. If he left my line of sight for more than a few seconds, I couldn’t even remember what his face looked like. I had read that infant animals formed attachments to inappropriate things sometimes, like falcons falling in love with their human breeders, or pandas with zookeepers, things like that.

Lindy

My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often Impossible for me to see him clearly at all. 

It was in my nature to absorb large volumes of information during times of distress, like I could master the distress through intellectual dominance. 

raia – inactive

My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all. 

We were predictable to each other, like two halves of the same brain.

It was in my nature to absorb large volumes of information during times of distress, like I could master the distress through intellectual dominance.

High Fidelity

Faber Stories

sina (she/her) 

Lewis John Fisher

i really just like my ability to picture the things that i read. like when i read a passage, a clear picture of what i imagine the scene to be is so vivid in my head and this was no exception. now i really want to watch normal people

my first sally rooney experience! i quiet like the writing… the yearning is nice too. i guess it’s about unrequited love and inappropriate relationship ? i think it’s perfect as a short rather than a full novel

ayoni

Devoured this in one sitting. Alas, it would've been lovely if this could be written into a full length novel—the subtle hint of yearning makes one crave for more.

rooney's so incredibly skilled at bringing the reader into a world of her own -- in this forty page short story she transports us to the world of sukie and nathan, breathes life into the town, their past, sukie's dying father. while it's a very easy read it ends feeling slightly incomplete, just like the both of them. i'm glad nathan stayed pushing sukie away till the end - it intensified sukie's almost visceral longing and left the reader just like her - wanting for more. 

I held my breath from start to finish. Rooney describes yearning so well it hurts. THIS IS INTENSE.

Bibi

I forgot to breath when I was reading this.

shuf

this is my first rooney work and i completely get the hype around her. gonna get started on her other works brb 

satvi

need this as a full book! 

this is my first rooney work and i completely get the hype around her. gonna get started on her other works brb 

Gemma McCarthy

Ghofran Mustafa 

This is my first read for Sally Rooney,
I'm not fond with short stories normally "especially romantic ones" but!!
this one was cozy and touching,
I'm glad I found it,
I liked her writing style and I'm planning to read her other works soon.

*I think it would've been better if it was a full length novel, I wanted to know more about the characters.*

I LIKED IT A LOT OMG. Idk it just felt very real in some way and poignant and weirdly relatable for some people, i just think that there are people who are interested in love stories like this… or to be in one.

Tsamarah

I love it. Although the writing style is a bit confusing for me as this is my first Sally Rooney, but very intriguing!

clau☁️

ILL GIVE THIS FIVE STARS IF SHE MAKES THIS INTO A WHOLE NOVEL

arwen

the people are once again asking for the full novel

Helena

aleksandra

4/5

So, where’s the full length novel? It was your typical Sally Rooney story with no quotation marks, not much of a plot just vibes, but I definitely need more. 


  
    "We were predictable to each other, like two halves of the same brain."

"My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all."

Jasmine Ghartey

A quick read that you can dive into on your daily morning commute or in the 30 minutes between your doom-scrolling and when sleep finally hits you. I think that Rooney’s ability to force us to confront the nature of our humanness—messy and unregulated yet so hopeful and idealistic—is what enraptures us all.

anumitaa

as usual another sally rooney book that i loved 😁 like why was it so short but had me hooked!!! i wish she made it into a full novel tho, i need more time to dissect nathan and sukie’s relationship 
by the time i could form some kind of opinion the book was over 😭

It's like you've been starving for 14 days and finally got your hands on some bussin' cheeseburger only for it to be taken away by an unknown force of nature and now your hunger would never be satisfied, you'll always wonder how that remaining piece of cheeseburger taste like. Now you're not just starving, but also sad, and miserable. This is what this book made me feel. It is my first Sally Rooney book, definitely looking forward for more.

skim haunts

syadrina

Hannah Yang

i had been anticipating reading normal people and conversations with friends eventually, but after reading this short story i'm unsure if i'll ~vibe~ with sally rooney.

i admittedly found her writing compelling enough to want to finish the story. it has a distinctive quality that feels simultaneously raw and unabashed but also painfully self-aware of its own 'hip' and 'cool'-ness (is the reader supposed to feel cool for reading and resonating with these characters?). i found the topics of the grotesque of the everyday / 'forbidden' attractions / conflicting feelings about loss interesting, though i dislike the idea that this incest-y, age-gappy situation was "the brink of the inevitable" (but then, maybe i am supposed to be questioning my societally-ingrained distaste for this relationship; what's wrong with two consenting adults?).

i guess my point is that i can see the rooney appeal, but the story left me feeling mildly bewildered and uncomfortable. like a candy that tastes sweet at first but leaves a weird aftertaste.

Lewis John Fisher &
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

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Lewis John Fisher &Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

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Lewis John Fisher &
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney