Normal People by Sally Rooney—Book Review
One of the few books everyone should read at least twice in their lives. “ It is one of the secrets in that change of mental poise which has been fitly named conversion, that to many among us neither heaven nor earth has any revelation till some personality touches theirs with a peculiar influence, subduing them into receptiveness .” — George Eliot I went through all of Sally Rooney’s interviews just to dive deeper into her mind—to understand her perspective beyond the book. Normal People is that kind of novel. If you hold it in your hands at midnight, you’ll find yourself staring at the ceiling, questioning everything you thought you knew about love, power, and the quiet violence of human relationships. Reading it for the first time, the third-person narration feels distant, like a story told through glass. The novel’s psychological depth, its brutal honesty about class, peer dynamics, and the inevitability of loneliness—these can be overwhelming. If you aren’t in the right head...