The novels are love stories but not too much so, mostly because their endings are nontraditionally happy, on the good side of what a woman recounting her romantic situation to a friend might call 'complicated'. Rooney writes in a way that satisfies the literary Goldilocks: Her books are plotted but not too plotted, stylish but not too stylish, political but not too political, modern but not too modern. the clarity of Rooney’s language gives way to clichés and not terribly convincing similes.as though the urgency of writing the story were so great that she was reluctant to pause to find the more perfect phrase. But the book can also seem rushed and conventional in ways her debut did not. It’s wonderful to hear the sound of Rooney’s voice on the page again, and the pleasures of her storytelling are even more immediate than in the first novel. Normal People, even as it is almost physically impossible to stop reading once begun, feels in some ways like the slightly less impressive follow-up album by a beloved band. Rooney’s novels have the unusual power to do what realist fiction was designed to do: bring to light how our contemporaries think and act in private (which these days mostly means off the internet), and allow us to see ourselves reflected in their predicaments.
Part of the excitement of reading Rooney is seeing this old-school sensibility applied to what feel like acutely modern problems. Her prose, much like Salinger’s - her predecessor in philosophical post-adolescent neurosis - is sharp, dialogue-heavy and unadorned, written to be absorbed into the bloodstream quickly. The brave determination of Rooney's characters to reach out and try to catch each other with no guarantee of success - and to open themselves to 'moments of joy despite everything' - is ultimately hopeful. Although frequently heartbreaking, Normal People isn't bleak. They build power by a steady accretion of often simple declarative sentences that track minuscule shifts in feelings. Yet while Rooney may write about apparent aimlessness and all the distractions of our age, her novels are laser-focused and word-perfect. She seems remarkably comfortable writing about sex - even uncomfortable sex - and she seamlessly integrates well-crafted texts, emails, and Facebook posts into her narratives like the digital native she is. Rooney's dialogue, like her descriptive prose, is slyly ironic, alternately evasive and direct, but always articulate. Although hailed as a voice of millennials, Rooney offers plenty to appeal to readers across genders and generations. a compulsive, psychologically astute will-they-or-won't-they love story involving two of the most sympathetic people you're liable to meet between covers.
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