@NoYOUbekind
The TV adaptation of Normal People is a triumph because the source material is so bleh. I cared about the telly couple much, much more than the book couple and that never happens to me. Yumster Conor may have helped that a smidge
I remain utterly bemused by so many people finding Paul Mescal as Connell so attractive. Throw a stick here and you'll hit three similarly generic, inarticulate, probably secretly soft-hearted GAA-beshorted lads.
I think it's true that the TV version addressed some of the weaknesses in the novel. The one that really struck me as much improved in the TV adaptation was the treatment of Rob, Connell's friend who dies by suicide late on in the novel, and precipitates Connell's depression/breakdown. In the novel, that felt incredibly tokenistic. Rob was never that close to Connell, he was just a generic, not-very-nice background character, who bullies Marianne, shows the lads naked photos of his girlfriend and is generally a generic background idiot who vanishes completely from the action once Connell goes to Trinity.
In the TV adaptation, the actor who played Rob was excellent, and suggested depths of insecurity and desperation, especially in one scene where he and Connell meet back in their hometown for an awkward drink, and it's quietly clear he isn't happy. So his suicide isn't just a generic triggering event to make Connell depressed -- we actually believe in it.
That's true about the original short story, @JaninaDuszejko. And I agree about Connell's mother, but Sally Rooney is ruthless about backstory so no Connell's mother, how she managed to emerge intact from a 'bad' family, no scene where he finally asks her to tell him who his unknown father is, no exploration of Marianne's family's backstory did her father beat her mother?