WollumB

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WollumB is Currently Reading

WollumB is currently reading

Normal People

by Sally Rooney (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in June 2025

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WollumB said: " Although I only finished Normal People around an hour ago, I could have sworn I had given it a different rating. Throughout the entirety of my reading I considered the book to be a 4/5, though I regularly wondered if my literary immaturity was the ca Although I only finished Normal People around an hour ago, I could have sworn I had given it a different rating. Throughout the entirety of my reading I considered the book to be a 4/5, though I regularly wondered if my literary immaturity was the cause of this: I read very rarely, for I consider it a more intrinsically intellectual pursuit that requires strict attention, a process I feel too tired to afford in my day-to-day life. The same cannot be said for audiovisual entertainment, which I have long enjoyed for its balance of intelligence and entertainment, towards which I feel more critically minded. It comes as a shock to me, then, that I had such a strong desire to read Normal People as a novel when film, or series, binds my soul and mind together so effortlessly where literature has often faltered for myself.

In retrospect I understand that this was an effort to conceal my own misery in my image of the novel. For years I have avoided Normal People: it’s hard not to recognise from online discussion that it is a personalised recipe for heartbreak, so widely reflected upon for its tragic formulation of connection and intimacy through a process of yearning and the smallest of moments. Frankly, I thought I had felt most of what the book had to offer just from seeing scenes and quotes online. I felt a shudder just thinking about it long before I read it. Now, I think I would simply pass out and die if I think about it again. That’s where that extra point comes from: an acknowledgment that I never want to think about it again, and thereby, that I have changed as a person from reading it.

Alas, I remain undeveloped in my understanding of literary form, so my analysis of the text is slim. I adored the discussions of class and, what I was shocked to experience, the Marxist lens for a romance novel: I found the dialogue regarding this poignant and accurate to my own experience of such conversations. The novel came across as more politically driven than I expected, and I believe this more accurately reflects reality and the human condition than the seemingly apolitical and asexual texts of many films I see; the value of intimacy in relation to class disparities, as well as a strict gender divide amongst the cast, was simultaneously engaging and properly discussed in a respectful manner. I feel strangely radicalised from my reading, which depicts the tragedy of isolation while drawing constant lines of distinction between all people. I wonder, as the characters do, how things would play out in a different world, a different context. It is exceptionally difficult not to get wrapped up in your own head with this one, because both viewpoint characters seem to become yourself: you will see parts of your mimd in each, feeling in some way you understand the whole of both because of it; you want to feel that your heart is connected, so you want these two together, desperately. But also… you don’t want that. Because love in fiction so often feels perfect, where this is muddied in blood and coin, so hopeless and divinely human, the contrast feels disparaging and striking. I am careful not to spoil the ending, but any reader will recognise early on that the best situation for these two will still, at its core, be a realistic situation that reflects the world more than fiction often does. This is the tragedy of the novel, that it does not feel like a novel, but a collection of thoughts and pains and loves and losses.

I loved Normal People in a manner that allows me further trust myself to learn more about the novel as a medium. There is a growing understanding for me as to how this medium works, has worked, and can change to bend and break these constructs. I am thoroughly, thoroughly impressed, but do not recommend to my friends presently in situationships. Save it a bit longer; you’ll need it then. ...more "

progress:

(page 185 of 266)
— Jun 10, 2025 03:35PM

Dec 02, 2025 06:36PM · see review