I know I am not the last person to read Sally Rooney's Normal People (it has not even been published here in the US yet--due out in mid-April), but it feels like it. I have heard really wonderful things about Sally Rooney--her books have won awards and acclaim and now this newest (though published in the UK last year) is longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I shamelessly have had it checked out from the library for longer than I care to admit, so I shall start here with the longlist. By the way, if I manage to read even a small handful of the books listed (and that over the course of the year!) I will be pleased--particularly those books I have owned for a while now.
I suspect Normal People will have a very good chance of making it to the shortlist, and it feels like it will read quickly (and then I will be in on the conversation finally . . .). It has been, or rather Rooney, has been hailed as the first great Millennial novelist. Maybe that is where my hesitation has come from? The gulf between me (I guess I am a Gen-X'er) and the Millennial generation seems wide indeed. I don't think there is such a thing (not really anyway) of being too old or too young for a book, but my experiences and viewpoint will likely be vastly different. However, maybe it is a way of bridging the gap and understanding?
I like the premise of the book--Marianne and Connell are high schoolers when the story opens, but they come from very different backgrounds. His mother is Marianne's family's cleaning lady. Despite that he is quite popular in school and she is an outsider--happy in her intelligence and solitude. Things may flip by the time they begin college and I am curious to see where their lives take them and if they tackle growing up together or apart.
I do like her writing very much and I love the descriptions she gives, particularly of Marianne, which is what I want to share here. This is Connell's perspective by the way.
"Marianne is grinning now. She exercises an open contempt for people in school. A lot of people really hate her. Her father died when she was thirteen and Connell has heard she has a mental illness now or something. It's true she is the smartest person in school. He dreads being left alone with her like this, but he also finds himself fantasizing about things he could say to impress her."
***
"She wears ugly thick-soled flat shoes and doesn't put make-up on her face. People have said she doesn't shave her legs or anything. Connell once heard that she spilled chocolate ice cream on herself and took her blouse off to wash it in the sink. That's a popular story about her, everyone has heard it. If she wanted, she could make a big show of saying hello to Connell in school. See you this afternoon, she could say, in front of everyone. Undoubtedly it would put him in an awkward position, which is the kind of thing she usually seems to enjoy. But she has never done it."
Did I mention that I my weekend reading was almost nil and that I didn't finish books or make progress in others when I had hoped to? It has been making me a little antsy, so starting a new book is definitely just what I need. And an Irish author in March, so it works out doubly well. And while I am still reading my February prompt book, it is time to think about March now as well!