Masterful novel of angst and friendship
This simple love story weaves its magic slowly but the result is pure gold, Steve Walker finds.
New Irish sensation Sally Rooney won critical acclaim and commercial success with her debut novel Conversations With Friends, last year. All eyes are on her for her follow-up.
She does not disappoint. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and sold as a TV series, Normal People is a stunning achievement. Profound, insightful and engrossing, it seems a simple love story. It weaves its magic slowly but steadily. It gets under the skin of readers and characters, and the result is pure gold.
Rooney has already been labelled somewhat glibly, as the ‘‘Salinger for the Snapchat generation’’. That suggests an immediacy and disposability that does her no justice. Normal People is evidence of a major, lasting talent that appeals beyond the narrow confines of teenage angst.
The novel follows the growing love and interdependence of two Irish school friends from near Sligo. At school, Connell is popular, sporty and bright. His family, however, is troubled with a terrible reputation and he has been raised by his single mother.
Marianne, on the other hand, hails from a wealthy family. Both parents are professionals and she lacks for nothing – except love. At school, she is independent and rebellious. They seem an unlikely pair but, deep down, they are well suited.
Underneath Connell’s ‘‘patience and consideration’’ is a lack of confidence. Like Marianne, his life misses some essential ingredients: a father, purpose, direction, and an outlet for his talents. As he talks with Marianne, she provides some of those missing qualities. She draws him out of himself and gently restores that lost art of talking and self-discovery.
They both decide to apply to Trinity College, Dublin. There, their love grows and shrinks. They discover different lives and loves. But, inevitably he keeps returning to her, not out of weakness but to rediscover his self. The effect is hypnotic and Rooney forces her readers to consider why.
Rooney’s writing is episodic. The story moves ahead like a diary, broken into significant chunks. Occasionally, she will go back to the past, or even forwards. The effect is not confusion but an added texture to the prose. It explains and illuminates aspects of their relationship, which remains the sole focus of the book.
In some ways, Normal People seems an odd choice for the Man Booker list.
It is like a miniature on ivory in a painting competition – small and curiously old-fashioned. But that belies the novel’s power. In its psychological insight, tenderness and restraint, and its ‘‘narcotic effect’’, it is a masterclass from yet another Irish writing prodigy.
At 27, Rooney clearly has much still to deliver. Roll on her next.