![]() ![]() Sally Rooney is smart, but not especially witty. ![]() The prose and dialogue are, as NPR put it, “slyly ironic” but there is no point in reading the novel where one is in danger of actually laughing. Rooney’s dialogue sounds life-like (picture them speaking with an Irish accent) yet as a writer Rooney lacks humor. The writing is reminiscent of Jane Austen– though not quite as elaborate. ![]() There is an almost mystical quality to the manner in which Sally Rooney explicates her characters’ psychological dimension. Not until the second half of the novel does the complexity of the female protagonist reach a level at which one could regard Normal People as literature. The prose is eloquent and the plot moves along nicely, yet one feels almost embarrassed to be reading about such adolescent affairs. The first half of Normal People feels more like young adult fiction than literary fiction: themes of teen love, peer pressure, not fitting in. ![]()
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