A Book Review of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People”

Normal people is about these two damaged individuals who developed a relationship with
each other that transcends the norms. Considering that the story is centered around the
complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell, this book is not considered a romance book.
Although, there are other concepts that are discussed in this book such as mutual fascination,
friendship, and love. Sally Rooney uses her remarkable psychological insight and exquisitely sparse
prose to examine the complexities of class, the ecstasy of first love, and the complicated
entanglements of family and friendship in this novel.

What Marianne and Connell had is sort of true to life. It shows that no matter how much
two people love each other, sometimes things just don’t go as how they wanted it to be. But despite
that they still keep on going back to each other. Uncommitted relationships are truly common in
this generation of life. This novel differs from the usual romance novels that people read because its
ending is left off with a cliffhanger. But the thing is, there is no next in this story. It’s up to us
readers to think what actually happened between the two of them.

Like I mentioned, Marianne and Connell are damaged people. They are going through a
lot of things. Their damages as a person affected the relationship between them. Because of that, a
lot of miscommunications and misinterpretations happened. That was the downfall of their
relationship that’s why it doesn't always work out in the end.

One of the strengths of this book is the way Sally Rooney made the characters vulnerable
and true to life. Readers that might be going through the same thing will possibly relate to the
characters. Although, some of the parts of the book might be too emotionally strong to handle for
some.
 The only downside to this book is that it doesn’t have quotation marks. Readers might be
confused while reading the dialogues but it’s not entirely distracting. You will probably get used to
it while reading the novel.

To me, this book is meaningful. People who feel outcast might feel understood if they ever
read this novel. Other than that, this book talks about the reality of life. I would definitely
recommend this book to other people. It will give you mixed feelings but it is totally worth it.
 PLOT SUMMARY OF NORMAL PEOPLE

Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron attend secondary school in a small town in Ireland and
will soon be going off to college. They are smart, like to read, are interested in world events, and
care about social justice. Marianne lives with her brother and her widowed mother. They are a
wealthy family, but her brother, Alan, is verbally and physically abusive toward Marianne, and her
mother, instead of intervening, takes Alan’s side. Marianne has low self-esteem from years of
internalizing her brother’s verbal abuse.

Connell’s mother, Lorraine, works as a cleaner. She dropped out of school when she became
pregnant with Connell and never told anyone who the father was. Lorraine cleans the Sheridans’
house twice weekly. Since she doesn’t drive, Lorraine needs Connell to pick her up when she is
done, so Connell and Marianne see each other often. Connell is self-conscious about his origins,
naturally shy, inarticulate in conversations, and indecisive.

At school, Marianne is deliberately antisocial and is considered a misfit, whereas Connell is

handsome and athletic, and is therefore popular despite his private insecurities. Publicly, Marianne
ignores Connell to avoid harming his social standing, but privately she tells Connell bluntly that
she has feelings for him. Cornell has feelings for Marianne, too, but he thinks of their relationship
as a private matter and not to be shared with the rest of the world. His feelings are partly based
partly on wanting to protect his social status, but also he connects with Marianne in a way he does
not connect with anyone else and does not fully understand.

Lorraine is aware that Marianne and Connell are growing close and approves since she likes
Marianne a great deal. After Marianne and Connell begin a sexual relationship, over time Connell
becomes more willing to be seen with Marianne in public. The relationship ends abruptly, however,
when Connell asks one of the school’s most popular girls, not Marianne, to the dance for
graduating seniors. Lorraine is furious at Connell, and Marianne is so humiliated that she stops
attending school. Connell is ashamed and wants to apologize to Marianne, but she ignores his calls
and texts.

Connell and Marianne meet again while attending university in Dublin, when her current
boyfriend, a political right-winger named Gareth, invites Connell to a party. Marianne and
Connell reconnect and resume their relationship. However, whereas she is comfortable in the
upper-class university environment and has become much more sociable than she was in school,
Connell continually feels out of place at university. Connell’s sense of social inferiority leads to a
second breakup with Marianne after a few months. Connell goes on to have a relationship with
another student, Helen, who is more conventional than Marianne and condescends toward him.
When Connell and Marianne both win a coveted scholarship, both his social standing and his
financial situation improve. However, he still feels restless and unhappy at university.

Marianne has other relationships as well. She was a virgin before being with Connell, but during a
relationship with Jamie, who is from a family even wealthier than her own, Marianne discovers that
she wants to be dominated and physically abused during sex. When Marianne shares this fact with
Connell, she assures him that her behavior with her boyfriend is an act. For Connell, she says, she
really would do anything. Marianne continues to suffer abuse at the hands of her brother and
mother when she is home for visits. She breaks up with Jamie after he behaves badly in front of
others during a European trip. Connell comforts her, but she does not get back together with
Connell. During a study year in Sweden, Marianne has another sado-masochistic relationship, this
time with a photographer named Lukas. However, when Lukas mentions love, Marianne ends their
relationship abruptly.

Throughout their relationship, violence repeatedly impacts Marianne and Connell in unexpected
ways. Marianne’s relationship with Jamie suffers strain and Marianne and Connell are drawn closer
together when Connell is mugged and Marianne tenderly sees to his injuries in front of Jamie and
other friends. The suicide of a friend from school days not only sends Connell into a severe
depression but also leads to Helen’s breaking up with Connell when she sees at the funeral how
much Connell still cares for Marianne. During a later summer back home, Connell rushes to be
with Marianne after Alan breaks her nose by smashing a door in her face. Connell threatens to kill
Alan if he mistreats Marianne again.

By the time graduation from university approaches, Marianne understands that she and Connell
have been good for each other, despite all the troubled times. Connell has developed a desire to
write fiction professionally and is showing a romantic interest in Sadie, a past editor at the campus
literary magazine. When Connell is accepted to a graduate program in creative writing in New
York, Marianne tells him he should go, and that she will always be there for him.

(Normal People: Plot Overview | SparkNotes, 2022)