Weekends with Sally Rooney

Normal People Thoughts

You were tempted for a second there, she said. Not really. I tempted you.

Oh look, another book review by some MFA student. How fucking cute.¹

Ya, Im becoming that guy …wait no, I’m not. But I figured why not share my literary thoughts while drowning in student debt and pretending this degree means something.

So here we are, reviewing Normal People and revealing the raw aftermath when two people can't break their orbital pull.

Oprah calls her the Slainger of the snachat generation ² Whatever. Let's cut the shit – we don’t need to compare writers to writers.

Spent an entire weekend reading it. Not because it's long - because every few pages I had to stop and stare at the wall. Actually, my attention span is worse than my nine-year-old. ³I had to think about every text I never sent. Every power play I pulled without realizing it. Every time I watched someone I loved deliberately hurt themselves because pain was better than nothing.

That shit hits.

Marianne and Connell. Both fucked up in their own special ways. Both too smart to be happy, too broken to stay apart. The kind of story that makes you remember every relationship that left scars.

The opener is gold . ⁴

Marianne answers the door when Connell rings the bell. She’s still wearing her school uniform, but she’s taken off the sweater, so it’s just the blouse and skirt, and she has no shoes on, only tights.

Marianne at the door in her half-off uniform. Everyone reads it like some teenage fantasy. But that's power play. The careful calculation of vulnerability. The performance of power. The way we weaponize our own bodies because sometimes that's all we've got.

Rooney’s choice to remove quotation ⁵marks forces the reader to sit with the discomfort. No fancy prose. Makes me think of every conversation I couldn't have, every silence that said more than words.

The societal class stuff hits hard. ⁶Watching Connell drown at Trinity... fuck. Been there. Different life, same drowning. That quiet desperation when you realize being smart isn't enough, when your background clings to you like smoke you can't wash off.

And if fucked up relationships weren’t enough, Rooney weaves in mental health. But not in your typical depression is just a phase bullshit. Watch Connell – golden boy, working-class hero – drown in the shallow end of Trinity's social pool.

No one was around that he had ever been really close with, and after a few drinks he became aware that he wasn't there to socialise anyway, he was just there to drink himself into a kind of sedated non-consciousness”(Rooney 132).

And Marianne... Jesus. The way she turns self-destruction into an art form. Makes me think of... no. Not going there. Not tonight.

The real genius here isn't the love story – it's how Rooney makes us watch two people orbit each other like dying stars, knowing they'll either collide or burn out. There's no happy ending because she knows that’s not real life.

So yeah, I'm in an MFA program, reading books about fucked up people finding fucked up ways to love each other. Studying craft and showing the world that men,in fact do still read and write.

Speaking of writing, what can you take from Normal People and Sally Rooney?

Well, since I don’t like teaching writing, because I’m still learning craft myself, I’d say stop trying to sound smart. Strip everything you can till it punches hard. Don’t hide the ugly parts. Find the one thing you’re scared of saying and start there.

And maybe that's exactly what we need – stories that don't pretend normalcy exists.

You can't fake this kind of writing. You either know what it feels like to watch someone you love destroy themselves, or you don't. You either understand power plays in your bones, or you're just playing dress-up.

My professor would hate this review. Too personal. Too raw. Not enough academic distance.

Good.

Because Normal People isn't a book you can keep at arm's length. It's a mirror for every fucked up relationship you've ever had. Every power dynamic you've ever played with. Every time you chose to hurt because feeling nothing was scarier.

This is me, sleep-deprived and too honest, telling you that Normal People will fuck you up if you let it. And maybe you should.

Oh ya, If this review makes you uncomfortable, ask yourself why.

If you're paid, you can get access to my full MFA book review. But this one's way better.