Sally Rooney’s Normal People BBC

[HDDD]

This book has been on my to read list for a while. I took a lazy punt and decided to watch the 12 part BBC adaptation instead. Now I’m overjoyed I never read it. It fascinated me and irked me in equal measure. I don’t want to give spoilers but the thing that grated the most was the ‘pretty’ thing. I don’t know how much was made of this in the book but Marianne said of herself that she wasn’t pretty at school and blossomed in college. Others also said it of her. She didn’t change the structure of her face! I think I have an irrational dislike of the word pretty anyway, but I’d be interested in other views on this – the pretty thing, and whether this book is indeed a modern feminist classic or mainly hogwash.

I feel like at the moment the Venn diagram of people who call themselves Marxists and people who've actually read Marx (or Engels) would contain barely a sliver of overlap

As would the Venn diagram of people who call themselves Marxist and who practise, or are willing to practise, what they preach.

Not watching. Dislike gratuitous sex and normalisation of choking.

Recommend Maeve Binchey’s “Circle of Friends”

Many women don't relate to it I think because they;'e older and have forgotten what it's like to be 20.

I'm in my mid-forties and spend half my life wistfully remembering what it was like to be 20!

waterfordwhispersnews.com/2020/05/05/missing-teen-last-seen-watching-normal-people-with-parents/

Brilliant

Recommend Maeve Binchey’s “Circle of Friends”
Love that book! She was brilliant

You really can't compare Maeve Binchey. It's like saying ooh I love Jeffrey Archer so don't bother with James Joyce.

i thought the tv series was exceptional and portrayed true sexual love impeccably. fuck pornhub

Not comparing: recommending as it’s a great “coming of age” and friendship story about teens.

dislike the knocking down of popular women authors.

Not read “Normal People”, might do, have read mixed reviews. Didn’t like the TV adaptation. Not read James Joyce either

You really can't compare Maeve Binchey. It's like saying ooh I love Jeffrey Archer so don't bother with James Joyce.

I don't agree with placing a dividing barrier between 'lowbrow' and 'highbrow' literature in this way. We shouldn't assume that because Maeve Binchey was a writer of popular sagas, she was any less equipped than Sally Rooney to portray truths about Irish society or the Irish class system. Maeve Binchey was authentic, and she knew how to spin a good yarn. If we could travel forward 100 years in time I would place a bet that Binchey's books would still be around and enjoyed and Rooney's would be largely forgotten.

I remember what it was like to be 20. It was pretty great actually, and I can't imagine my 20 year old self having much patience with a man who refused to be seen in public with me.

I have read Sally Rooney, Maeve Binchy and James Joyce (But not Jeffrey Archer)

Of the three, I prefer Maeve Binchy.

But then Binchy wrote Circle of Friends in her late 40s (I assume - she was 50 or 51 on publication) by which time she had honed her craft and gained some perspective on her youth and university years. I'm all for giving Sally Rooney a bit of time.

James Joyce! That's quite a leap. I'm baffled at how Normal People is considered literary fiction, I don't see it. It's not as though NP is inaccessible or heavy with literary allusions you can only pick up if you have a classical education. If you like it, fine, but it's not exactly showing off your dazzling intelligence to have read it.

Good point about Maeve Binchy being older, but it's also just a general warmth and compassion for people that is innate in a writer (or not) and I couldn't be bothered with the superior chilly tone of SR.

Dunno, I think you can grow both as a person and as a writer. I guess I'm inclined to cut Rooney some slack because I think 'Normal People', while flawed, is a vast improvement on 'Conversations with Friends', which I found incredibly annoying - so much so that, if I'd read it first, I would never have bothered with 'Normal People'.
I can't think of any writer who was the finished article at 29, not even Jane Austen.

I wasnt equating SR to Joyce, making the point that comparing vastly different types of writing styles, reader markets etc is difficult. I've never got beyond a paragraph of Benchy because of personal taste whereas I found SRs style compelling.

It is down to taster really. But the literary establishment including the Booker committee do rate NP.

I have very little respect for the literary establishment.

I think Rooney has potential but that the establishment is doing her no favours by lauding her so much and so soon.

If we could travel forward 100 years in time I would place a bet that Binchey's books would still be around and enjoyed and Rooney's would be largely forgotten

I think you could be right. Which would mean that Bjnchey is the better writer as only good books stand the test of time.

We shall see, I guess. Actually no we won't, we'll be dead

I liked his necklace a lot !

Didn't really notice the plot and assumed I'd accidently switched to a soft porn channel. Rather enjoyed it !

I found the TV series very sanitised, the class references all removed and the sex increased but only to 'straight' penis focussed sex, when the book is more subtle and nuanced. But both did remind me, and protray well I think, the intensity of feelings that go with sexual attraction when you're young.

It's a fair point that Sally Rooney's writing might improve with age. I'll give any writer a second chance!

I'm baffled at how Normal People is considered literary fiction, I don't see it.

Literary fiction is just another genre these days, and often neither the best crafted nor the most compelling genre, IMO.

She’s not as ‘blunt’ in uni as it’s more the accepted way to be - to be opinionated and bold .

There’s a nice little reversal. She’s out on a limb and not accepted in school, despite her privilege. He finds the same in uni, he’s not accepted as he is from the working class background and he lacks the social capital. So she blooms in 1st year and he struggles. But she’s actually got a lot of trauma so she then struggles and he is fine.

Blunt tool and heteronormative beyond belief (strong, stable, protective guy) but not terrible! She probably did capture jane Austen in a way.

It's done well in that I want to see the next episode to know what happens, yet the complete lack of humour is depressing and makes the characters seem very, very serious.

Apart from the lack of humour, I don't get the inconsistency of the communication. Miscommunications are overused in the story.

I remember being a student of their age and we had a lot more laughs, thank goodness.

It's a fair point that Sally Rooney's writing might improve with age. I'll give any writer a second chance!

Maeve Binchy's first book is one of her best imo. I liked normal people but I'm in no rush to read any of her others.