My first encounter with Sally Rooney’s writing was a test of patience—getting past the first 100 pages of ‘Normal People’ wasn’t easy. But once I did, I found myself hooked. Rooney’s characters and their ordinary, messy lives left a lasting impression on me. Even months after finishing “Normal People”, I found myself thinking of the story. Since then, I have read all of her books (except for her newest novel “Intermezzo”).
Rooney’s Realism
In a nutshell, Rooney’s novels are uniquely character-driven, capturing protagonists in their mundane, often troubled lives. Take “Normal People” for example: it follows the evolving relationship between two Irish teenagers from different social backgrounds. Marianne, an intelligent outcast from a wealthy yet troubled family, and Connell, a popular athlete from a working-class family. At first glance this might seem to depict your traditional “opposites attract” story, but to reduce it to a romance novel fails to capture the depth of the emotions at the heart of the narrative. Rooney’s exploration of how people grow and the way people love as a result of their experiences, is far more complex than just a love story.
Rooney’s strength lies in her perceptive, almost unfiltered ability to capture the nuances of human relationships. Her characters are not defined by grand gestures or loud discussions. Instead, it is the quiet, unspoken moments that make her writing so potent—the way she describes characters grabbing a glass of water, or watching somebody leave. In these moments, we feel the weight of their unspoken feelings—their silences communicate as much as their words, if not more. These subtle moments of connection and disconnection are what make the story feel painfully real.
In “Normal People” there is no happy ending or sense of healing from the emotional baggage both Marianne and Connell carry throughout their lives. Instead, it depicts life in its unresolved state. It’s a story about the complexity of love and the weight of the past on the present. Reading this book felt like a true account of average lives, revealing the beauty and struggle in everyday connections. I felt a sense of freshness and clarity, as if Rooney can truly represent life as it really is. “Normal People” in its quiet honesty felt normal—and that’s what makes it so profound.
Human Flaws: The Unlikable Yet Relatable Protagonists
I have encountered criticism that her books are all the same or the characters are unlikable and pretentious. To some extent I agree that her novels follow a similar formula and many of her characters tend to have a superiority complex. For instance, in “Beautiful World Where Are You”, the protagonists— Alice, a successful novelist, struggling with pressures of fame and isolation, and Eileen, facing the disappointments of an ordinary life— navigate their personal lives and pressures of society. Their friendship unfolds through emails, which often turn into long discussions about politics and societal issues. These passages, at times, feel obnoxious. The characters seem more interested in showcasing their intellectual superiority than in having meaningful conversations.
However, the criticism that Rooney’s characters are unlikable misses the point. Her characters are not written to be liked or disliked—they are written to be human. Rooney’s genius lies in her willingness to present her characters in all their raw, unfiltered complexity. She shows them at their best and their worst, which can be jarring because literature often does not show all sides of a character and even in real life, it is rare to know somebody for everything they are.
In a way, it’s uncomfortable to see characters behave badly or make irrational choices. Yet, that’s what makes them so believable. When we see all sides of someone—their flaws and contradictions—it can be hard to form an immediate connection, but that’s part of what makes the reading experience so powerful.
The Reality of Human Imperfections
Rooney’s novels are not traditional in structure or plot; they thrive in the spaces between words, in the unspoken and the unresolved. They show us life in a raw form. And they all reiterate three truths:
- Our experiences shape how we love
- Humans will be humans
- Life is about the moments in between
At the end of the day, no matter how pretentious or unlikable some of her characters may seem, they are just like us. They gossip, make emotionally driven mistakes, say things that destroy friendships, and act in ways that, at times, don’t make sense. We might argue that these stories are unrealistic, that people would not behave this way in real life, but the truth is, we’ve all acted irrationally at times—myself, likely you, and everyone we know. Because, after all, we’re human. We feel deeply, we stumble, and we’re all just figuring out how to live.
Featured Image: Rock and Art
