IS NORMAL PEOPLE A MASTERPIECE?
From the stunning scenery to the graphic sex scenes, it’s the TV show everyone is talking about. But as it’s called everything from a beautiful snapshot of teenage angst to a snooze-inducing borefest, we ask two writers...
‘His treatment of Marianne is disgraceful’
London. So, of course, when I saw Normal People trending, I had to tune in.
It’s probably fair to say that it has enjoyed the kind of publicity that advertising just can’t buy.
Endorsed by such heavy hitters as Kourtney Kardashian, James Corden, Mia Farrow and Richard E Grant, and given acclaim by the hard-to-impress Vanity Fair and Rotten Tomatoes, the show was pretty much inescapable.
So I decided to see for myself, presuming director Lenny Abrahamson — whose work I love — must have changed it quite a bit from the book to make it translate to the small screen.
Because — and I know I’m in a minority here — I didn’t really like the book. And, I soon discovered, Abrahamson hadn’t changed it and I didn’t like the TV show either.
I find both excruciatingly dull.
Nothing happens. Nothing.
I’m a voracious reader — I can get through two books during a working week and four or five on a week-long holiday. I very rarely leave a book unfinished. And so, of course, I got to the end of Sally Rooney’s Normal People — though it did take me a longer-than-usual two weeks.
But I didn’t finish it because I enjoyed it; I finished it because I was sure something must happen.
There must be some sort of climax to the story. It couldn’t just be this inane, boring relationship between two people. Could it? It could. It is. I previously read Rooney’s first novel Conversations With Friends, which, though not exactly filled with adventure, at least had a story thread and a narrative that made me want to see it through to a conclusion.
With Normal People, I just wanted to get it over with. To the very last page, I was convinced there was going to be some big scene, some life-changing event.
When I read the last line and turned the page and the Acknowledgements came up, I actually thought something had gone wrong with my Kindle. I thought it was just the end of a chapter.
Rooney is a beautiful writer and her prose is wonderfully descriptive but I just find it so difficult to care about her characters.
When Normal People made the move to TV and 12 — count ’em, 12 — episodes I expected Connell and Marianne to be more rounded, maybe providing me with the understanding of them I’d been missing from the book.
But it wasn’t to be. I still don’t care about them. I find them frustratingly inert and annoyingly one-dimensional. Their inability to communicate makes me rage at the TV.
I only managed to get through four episodes before telling myself that I’d wasted enough time on the book, I knew nothing was actually going to happen on TV either and I should cut my losses.
I can see by the deluge of comments on social media that the reason it resonates with so many people, especially women, is because they’ve had a Connell in their life, a man who couldn’t express his feelings and therefore ended up ruining/never beginning their relationship.
And yes, I’ve met plenty of them too. But the reason I was better off without them is because they were emotionally inept and socially challenged. They weren’t entertaining in real life, why would they be on screen?
Connell’s treatment of Marianne in school is so disgraceful I can’t bring myself to want them to work it out after they go to college. He stood back and watched while she was bullied — how can you want her to forgive that?
I also have no idea how somebody barely able to string a coherent sentence together could be studying English Literature at university.
The grá for Trinity is another reason why people seem to be enveloped by the series — and I will admit some of the scenes there are beautifully shot.
But I went to DCU so can’t tap into that same nostalgia. Even if it were set in DCU, I’m not sure that could save it for me.
And I have a funny feeling there’d definitely be a few more people around who would tell Connell to cop on to himself and not indulge his self-obsession.
Maybe it’s because the world is in a permanent state of doing nothing right now that a show that highlights just that is gripping viewers.
I’m the opposite — while I can do nothing, I want action, suspense and intrigue to entertain me.
I thoroughly enjoyed Gangs of London, with the episode at the farmhouse having more action in its first five minutes than the entire 12 of Normal People.
So unless Sally Rooney writes the part two that I’m convinced must exist, I’ll remain one of the abnormal people who just can’t get on board with this.