Normal People

Normal People was released in 2018 and has received a number of awards and much acclaim. I guess I’m a bit late to the party on this one despite seeing it appear on numerous must-read lists before now.

Connell is a well-liked teenager who plays football and Marianne is mostly disliked by others and is generally unhappy with life. Connell and Marianne attend the same high school but to all appearances, they don’t know each other. In reality, Connell’s mum works for Marianne’s family as a housekeeper and the two have been acquainted for quite some time thanks to Connell regularly picking up his mum from Marianne’s house. Over time the pair form a sort of relationship that is nothing official and is totally behind the scenes. The book is mainly about how the two handle their connection through the end of high school and then on to tertiary study when they attend Trinity College in Dublin.

I mostly liked this book but I won’t say it was an easy read. The writing style is a bit annoying at times although I admit it’s pretty consistent throughout. There are the occasional flashbacks in the story, but those aren’t always clear so that the reader might be uncertain of the time frame. Marianne and Connell spend a lot of time being unhappy with each other and with themselves. The unhappiness drives much of the story with both playing at being normal people when both are broken in many ways. In the end it’s a story of very flawed characters who seem to always be drawn back to each other. Whether they can ever achieve real happiness seems always uncertain.

I give this 3.5 stars.