Normal People is a story told about a man and a woman, whose lives clash together with varying results over the course of a few years. To make things interesting, this story kicks off in their final year of high school when most human beings are arguably at their worst. In the beginning, Connell is the attractive and popular senior, though far from wealthy. He’s a teenager of few words who gets on well with his single mother and tries hard at school. Though he […]

Between this and Normal People, Sally Rooney really excels in the small spaces. They’re just stories about people, removed even from extraordinary circumstances. The background isn’t war or conflict or some other extraordinary event, the background is just life. The cynic in me wonders if this isn’t because Rooney is so young that small stories about young people are what’s currently in her wheelhouse, but even if that is the case, very few young authors could tell these stories with half the care and depth that […]