This book has made me an instant fan of Sally Rooney. I've been dodging reading this book for so long because of it's base premise: a four year situation-ship between a young man and woman in Ireland. To complicate things further, he – Connell Waldron – suffers from anxiety and depression, while she – Marianne Sheridan – suffers from abandonment and self-confidence issues. While in their final year of college, they decide to start a sexual relationship on the downlow, private from everyone.
On paper, it's a recipe for disaster. Neither know how to properly communicate their thoughts and feelings to one another, causing a cycle of fighting, drifting apart from one another and entering relationships of their own, finding their way back to one another and resuming their friends with benefits situation-ship. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I am so glad that I decided to finally read Normal People because it is a truly phenomenal book (and no, the lack of quotation marks didn't bother me). Connell and Marianne are some of the most realistic characters I've ever read, fully realized and practically leaping off the page. They're equally frustrating and refreshing. Sally described their relationship perfectly at the end: "All these years they've been like two little plants sharing the same pot of soil, growing around one another, contorting to make room, taking certain unlikely positions."
By the end of the novel, I was rooting for them. "He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her". Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. But the final words wrecked me.
"You should go. I'll always be here. You know that."
Connell and Marianne 4 EVER.
by southernfirefly13