Normal People by Sally Rooney
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
A couple months back during stay at home orders, I was on my second glass of wine one evening and mindless browsing my library app.
My attention span was literally the scope of a gnat’s at that time….and that second glass of wine most likely turned into my third (Anyone else notice their grown up beverage consumption has sky rocketed since March????)….so focusing on actually reading a book for more than few minutes was just beyond me in that moment.
Even LISTENING to a book was beyond me.
Which sucked.
Because yall know reading is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS.
And that “I can’t pay attention/focus on anything” feeling lasted for a loooong couple of months for me.
Anyway…that night instead of reading, I was looking for things I wanted to read in the FUTURE once my brain was capable again.
I started adding titles to my “holds” list.
I do this with books on my library app like many people do with Netflix….you browse, you see something that looks interesting, you add to your queue so you can find it to enjoy later.😆
That night almost every book I came across had WEEKS of wait time.
Which was completely fine by me because my quarantine brain was a pile of mush anyway and I knew I wouldn’t be able to dive into them like I wanted to.
I got on the wait list for like a BAGILLION books that night, yall.
My wine fingers just clicked and clicked and clicked.
And no joke….THEY ALL CAME THRU THIS WEEKEND😆
Good thing my mental fogginess has lifted AND I’m also back to training for my rescheduled March half marathon (which seeing the state of things in our nation this race probably won’t happen in late August anyway…..BUT I’m getting ready JUST IN CASE!)
My audiobook game is back in peak form again!
This read is by an Irish author in her late 20s that I have seen RAVES and RAVES about in the literary world…so I was looking forward to seeing if she lived up to the hype.
Good news friends….she most certainly did.
Here is an official summary:
“Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.”
I saw this book described as a “romantic tragicomedy” and I can not think of more perfect adjectives.
You get to know Marianne and Connell as they grow into themselves during their teen years and young adulthood….and you watch them as they discover themselves and discover each other…and discover what they are together and what they are apart.
Of course all of those things are complicated and multidimensional.
They aren’t quite sure what about themselves is deep down really who they are….they aren’t quite sure what they are or what they are not….they aren’t quite sure if they know what love really is or if what they are feeling is real….they aren’t quite sure what is healthy and what is dangerous.
Is what they are feeling and experiencing “normal” or is it “weird”……and what exactly do those words mean anyway?
There are some quite painful and harmful moments both characters experience over the years…with each other and without. They grow together and they grow apart….
Both Marianne and Connell have plenty of their own inner demons to battle…some they fight together, some they hide from the other, and some they conquer on their own.
But it seems they always find their way back to each other…not always in the way they expect to either.
I love the way Sally Rooney gets into your head with the sharp, witty and powerful way she writes.
I also really liked how she keeps your feelings for the characters on this constant continuum…sometimes you feel bad for them, sometimes you are irritated with them, sometimes you think they are lovely, sometimes you think they are horrible.
You know…kinda like how we feel about ALL PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE 😆
I also loved that there was an Irish narrator for the audiobook too…. I did have to look up some Irish slang words which was fun!
My only issue with this book was the ending….
It was too sudden…I thought “HOLD UP….wait…that’s IT?!?”
Totally should have been AT LEAST another page…or at LEAST throw me one more paragraph.
Really enjoyed this book…..MUCH more than my *last* fiction read FOR SURE!
Even though I liked this book, I’m not sure if I’ll check out the Hulu show based on it…when I watched the trailer for it I was like “Hmmmmm NOT what I pictured the characters looking like AT ALL.”
I don’t know if I want to mess my whole vision I had going on while reading…..
Book is always better than Hollywood version ANYWAY.😆