Norma

by Sarah Mintz

Widowhood and weirdos, online and off, NORMA is so dark it smarts. It’s a terrible freedom to linger unaccounted for. Norma is waking up and cracking up. Decades of marriage, housekeeping, and family buried with her husband Hank. Now, she’s free, gorging on an online riot of canceled soap operas, message boards, and grocery store focus groups. Transcribing chatter for fifty cents a minute. It’s all of humanity—grim, funny, and desperate—wafting into her world, a world reeking with the funk of old fast food wrappers, cold stale recycled air, and desiccated car upholstery. And one where appropriate boundaries are suddenly slipping too, when a voice from one of her transcripts goes from virtual to IRL and just down the block. NORMA is a tart, unhinged flail into widowhood, the parasocial, and some of the more careworn corners of the internet.

Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2024

About the author

This author also writes under the pen name S. Mintz

Reviews

[Yahaira · Rating 5 out of 5]

we have an older woman who, after her husband dies, is all alone. They never had kids and didn’t have many friends; she spends her days transcribing old Russian soap operas and court filings. She thinks she’s happy finally having time to herself, doing whatever she wants, but this idea starts to slowly crumble as she becomes obsessed with one of the people in her files.This is another one where the writing captivated me, there are these gorgeous passages about getting old and these other streams of thoughts where we get lost in the meaning. Grieving doesn't follow a straight line.

There’s love, desire, hatred, and desperation here as well. Norma’s obsessions go from parasocial relationships in forums to real life overstepping. Cracks are revealed in her reality, loneliness becomes claustrophobic, and we get a gorgeous book that magnifies ordinary life.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved how odd this was and the perspective it was written from but I was so confused about quite a few things until the end. Solid fake it till you make it vibe

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 5o pages are ROUGH, borderline incomprehensible at times, and I almost DNF-ed this. I would have, honestly, except I didn't have anything else to read. So I persisted. But although I enjoyed the rest of the book more, I found those first 50 pages prevented me from ever caring or being attached to Norma or what was happening in the plot. Norma is an interesting character, the prose is very unique, and there were some interesting philosophical discussions, but I think this book is a bit too pretentious, to its detriment.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC!

tysm to invisible press for the gifted copy ❣️

[Kathyanne]

Trigger warning: Not a great time.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a challenging read. I got into a kind of flow with it eventually, but right when I did it just sort of… ends. I wish there had been a firmer conclusion.

[Skye Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it. Very human.

[Héloïse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is about a retired widow, Norma, who transcribes soap operas and police interviews.
She notices that one of the cases (incest) is about people she knows and starts obsessing over it. She watches the victim work as a cashier and fantasizes about talking to her and becoming her hero. Up till they really meet and the girl gets a restraining order against Norma.
Oddly enough, I'm not even sure it's really what happened.

Almost DNF but because it is a short book I kept on. I don't think it was worth it.
I love the idea of the plot and I love that it shines a light on the experience of a character who is an older widow.

But it was such a confusing and dense book. There is no chapter, just some parts dividers that don't give that much indications on parts. So you go from Norma's story to her transcriptions to surveys to endless explanations of the context of the moments transcribed in a few sentences. I was lost from the beginning.
There were very good passages, some that made me parallel with my loved ones' experience, some that made me love discovering more about the character. But damn they are so lost among all the chaos of the book. I could not find the purpose of all of that. It's not badly written by any means but it feels so lengthy.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was grateful to be given this book by a friend to read when she won a few copies in a giveaway.

I was initially drawn the cover, I love it. It’s eye catching and made me curious. Now the actual story is a blip in time of Norma’s life. She’s an older woman who is widowed and is just living her life. She dictates Russian soap operas and police interviews. She becomes obsessed with a certain interview and tried to insert herself in the victims life, and lies saying she knows her grandmother to get closer and more of the story.
It’s a case of a “nosy neighbour” and I felt like it was really boring. It took me a long time to read the first say 60 pages and then it got a little better. I did enjoyed that it was told with the dictations too because it also made the plot a bit confusing and especially in the beginning.
I’m not sure if I’d recommend this book or not, I wouldn’t know what audience would really enjoy it.

[Szymon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why do I lie? I lie because I like lying, because sometimes it sounds better to say a word than not say it, and the meaning of it is indifferent to the sound of it.

The cover is stun. Aside from that, the novel is as much a hodge-podge as poor old Norma's mind. After her husband dies, she relishes in the new found freedom by deep-diving into odd soap forums and audio file transcription. Pretty quickly she devolves and starts stalking the people from a file who coincidentally live in her area. Desperation, obsession, longing for conection and cooky loneliness permeate the pages. How weird can you get before others start to notice?

[donna_ehm · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I saw the tag 'lit-fic' and was warned, wasn't I? It's publishing shorthand for, "If you don't like it well, clearly the problem is you and your lack of sophistication/education/intelligence to properly understand what the Author is saying."

"I mean," they mutter to themselves,"it looks all deep and shit, so it must be important, right?" They scribble make a note to capitalize 'author' on a nearby sticky.


I enjoy being challenged and working with an author and their narrative. What I don't enjoy is being dragged into a street fight in some back alley where I'm constantly trying to find my footing because the ground is covered in bullshit.

[José Pereira · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s some promise in the rolling prose, but the book’s a concoction of incongruous wall throws. A descending Bernhardian monologue that is verveless, an attempt at formal experimentation and tech commentary that is awkward and purposeless, a(nother) take on grief with no profundity, and some sort of true crime plot point that goes nowhere.
Better a mess like this than autofiction, tho.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely amazing read!

[Christopher Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and psychedelic. A new age classic.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Norma stressed me out but I loved her and all her terrible decisions and her very sad life.

[Ashlee Withers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really struggled to understand what was going on. The idea sold to me on the blurb of who Norma was could have been really interesting, and I would of loved the story exploring life after spousal loss. However, I was just confused and dissatisfied with what was written.