I just want to start this by saying that Normal People is my favorite TV series, and I really adore the book. Connell is the most relatable character I’ve ever come across. The thing is, as I read her other two novels, Normal People lost its charm. I realized that it’s not fiction created by a product of high emotional intelligence, but just from an ordinary Irish person’s life.
She always gives all the attention to the main characters, and there are almost no side characters, except maybe their names. Frances’ father Dennis from CWF and Jamie from NP, for example, were such one dimensional characters with huge (and wasted) potential.
My main complaint appears right here: the protagonists. Almost all of them have the exact same characteristics. Each of her books contains an introverted writer that doubts themselves on publishing their work (Eileen, Connell, Frances), six out of ten characters are openly queer, three of the other four are tall, cis-het, handsome men who hate talking about themselves (Nick, Simon, Connell), every book has a student or graduate from the English department of Trinity College, we see women with ‘daddy issues’ (Alice, Marianne, Frances), a holiday vacation somewhere in Europe, a loner with a popular, beautiful friend that ‘adopts’ the former (in CWF and BW) and every female protagonist is a witty, sharp-tongued individual who’s wrongly perceived by the public. Ah, there is also the fact that every single one of them is highly submissive during sex, to the above-mentioned strong-cishet men.
Her books (maybe BW excluded) were a joy to read and watch individually, but at this point I just feel like I read Rooney’s life all this time. I love her writing style, so I really hope she will explore some other themes in her future work.
by abidgranger
47 Comments
Glad someone said it. I’ve read them all and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why they were becoming less entertaining. I first read Conversations with Friends while on vacation and adored it. Then read Normal People at home and it was fine. Thought maybe the others were less exciting because I wasn’t reading them in a new and exciting place. Beautiful World, Where Are You was a disappointment. You breaking down her formula really explains a lot about my feelings towards her work.
That’s basically all famous authors that pump out the same basic shit. Pretty much every crime author ever
I don’t think you are wrong but not quite right. Everything you’ve said about the similarities I completely agree with. I think Conversations with friends is a very good debut but it’s not as polished as Normal People. Beautiful World Where Are You has similar characters and themes but told in a different way. She went more experimental in style in a way that I personally found a bit boring.
I very much am looking forward to whatever she writes next. I’m not sure I need anything really different but I imagine as she gets older the personal tensions will be bigger.
Similar books that I loved (sad Irish girls)
Snowflake by Louise Nealon
Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan
This Happy by Niamh Campbell
I could go on but that’s three all about similar areas.
Susannah Dickey’s books Tennis Lessons and Common Decency are both fantastic and in the North so it’s on list.
People keep comparing her to Dan Brown or Stephen King, but I think that’s pretty dismissive. She’s probably more akin to someone like Murakami. Sure, there’s some surface-level similarities in her characters, but the thematic content of the work varies enough. If you’re someone just reading for the plot, you’ll probably walk away unsatisfied, but I don’t think that’s really why she’s writing.
She’s also still young and has a lot of artistic growth ahead of her.
Can’t blame Sally Rooney for writing what sells and pulling in that money.
I’ve only read Beautiful World, Where Are You? and thought it was one of the most boring books I’ve ever read. Are her other books worth the read or am I forever ruined that I read her least critically successful book first?
I think this is true with a lot of authors. I love the three Ishiguro novels I’ve read, but I’m not sure I want to put myself through another passive, borderline-autistic protagonist who watches events unfold around them for the entire story.
You say it like it’s a bad thing. Most fiction writers repeatedly recycle themes and scenarios. Authors that actually change up their approach from book to book are in a minority.
I’d agree Rooney’s sets are kinda repetitive, but I’d disagree with the dismissive tone, I think she’s a talented stylist. With many haters on r/books, obviously. Maybe because her tone is so understated that it looks overly simple on the surface.
Most authors have only one good book, and it’s a slightly fictionalized version of their lives.
Have you considered that she isn’t lauded for her plots, but for her styling and command of her language? I think if you are reading her books for the storylines they fall short, but her prose and ear for dialog is unimpeachable
I read Conversations with Friends and I have no wish to read anything else written by her. Boring to death. Just not my cuppa. 🤷🏻♀️ There are so many other books/authors out there there’s no point in wasting your time.
I agree. I loved Normal People. Conversations with Friends was ok, and definitely too similar without. Beautiful World was excruciating.
And so does John Grisham
I feel the same about Haruki Murakami. There’s always a normal dude who likes whisky, a woman with an unusual trait, and another world of some sort that intersects with this one.
Every. Time.
Ngl I dnfd normal people. Wanted to like it so much but it was so bland and one dimensional that there was no reason to continue. The show on the other hand is much more exciting and emotive and overall really well produced. But sally Rooney caters to a very specific booktok demographic and you can’t really expect any thought provoking insights imo.
Well a lot of writers have formulas that work for them. Sally Rooney is also part of a certain era in irish Literature where in the 2010s a lot of writers Adapted a similar style (Megan Nolan, Niamh Campbell etc.). I still like rooneys books because I like that it’s more character driven than plot driven and I like her style of writing. I don’t mind autobiographical elements, e.g. BW reflects that Rooney moved to the irish countryside.
Only the most proficient of writers do not become prolific authors of plot/character monotony. Rooney’s books are emblematic of the axiom ‘write what you know.’
Someone said “Every Author really only has one book” and I think theres some truth to it
I still have no idea what the big deal about Normal People was. It was a trite story.
She’s the author that doesn’t use quotes around the speaking parts? I haven’t been able to get over that part.
I watched normal people and connell was really a relatable character to me. I haven’t read the novel or any of sally work yet. Would you recommend me any which has similar characters like connell?
I read NP first and really enjoyed it so got CWF and was kinda disappointed but put it down to being a first book and Rooney improving as she went along. Got BW and again disappointed, exactly why OP says it’s the same character traits mixed up a little and the characters renamed. Hope Rooney changes things up next time.
Very much agree! I read “converstions with friends” first, loved it (also, found it really sad & melancholic, conversly to several critics who claimed it was “satiric”).
Then, I read “Normal People”, absolutely loved the beginning, the description of the main characters’ lives on the irish countryside. But then, there was this whole “young female protagonist has submissive sex but doesn’t really enjoy it but rather does it to punish herself for feeling defficient”-storyline, the lovers who can’t have each other because they don’t communicate, and the protagonists who feel so much love and pain but don’t open up because they can’t show vulnerabilities. I was kind of disappointed – the protagonists who seemed to be complex characters at first became something like tropes. And I, too, couldn’t get rid of the feeling Sally Rooney is just writing about herself
The TV adaptation of normal people is really wonderful if anyone hasn’t seen it.
I honestly don’t know that I would love normal people the book if I hadn’t watched the show first. I had never heard of Sally Rooney, and binged it during the pandemic. I’ve rewatched it a few times since then, because Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones are just *incredible.* But I read the book once out of nerdy obligation in a day and donated it to a free library. Lol
I feel like this about Fredrik Backman. I loved a man called Ove, but by the time I read ´Britt Marie was here ´ I felt like he was just using the same recipe to bake the same cake, only the icing differs.
Exactly this.
And what I find more frustrating (as someone who is Irish and living in Ireland) is this fetishism of the idea that it’s very relatable writing with relatable characters reflecting Irish people of a certain age. It’s not. It couldn’t be further from that. She really does bring the “Trinners for winners” stereotypes into her writing which 99.9% of Irish readers would just roll their eyes at. The conversations she’s had between some characters are just not believable in the slightest.
I read Conversations With Friends and really liked it. Then I watched the Normal People series and was pretty bored by it, and struck by the tonal and structural similarities to CWF. I’ve had Normal People sitting on my shelf for years and can’t bring myself to read it, because it just doesn’t strike me as very different from CWF.
Does anyone know that Robin Cook book where a rising star female doctor in her late 20s discovers a conspiracy at her hospital in which healthy people are suddenly falling sick and dying? Which one was that again?
the jack reacher formula
She said in an interview that normal people was more or less a rewrite of conversations with friends (or vice versa, whichever came second). I found her explanation for this kinda interesting and endearing but even so, I do think she’s a bit over hyped.
BWWAY is the horniest book I’ve ever read
Lol I feel you. That’s why I couldn’t finish BW after reading CWF and NP.
i think maybe sally would be an excellent screenwriter, going off of the dialogue heavy normal people and how well it was translated to screen. but i definitely have to agree with you it can feel underwritten at times
I LOVED Normal People when I read it last year, and I own Conversations with Friends but I haven’t read it yet because I’m worried I won’t like it!
Threw CWF across the room in disgust about a third of the way in.
Not for me at all.
Enjoyed the NP series, but mostly for the actors’ performances. I could not have stood to read their internal monologues.
Here’s the thing, I was in Trinity around the same time as Sally Rooney. I was gifted CWF and told, “You’ll recognise so many people in here.”
Well I can tell you that the science department was a good deal less navel gazing and insufferable, thank christ! I knew no-one like that, and if I did, I had enough self-preservation instinct not to become friends with them. I would have sprained my eyes, rolling them.
I had to read Conversations With Friends for one of my 3rd year English classes in university and it was truly the worst book I have ever read. Was considering trying another one of her books to see if they are all that bat but this saved me a ton of time!
I read Normal People and Beautiful World this year and don’t disagree with you, but also don’t have a problem with it. In the same way that filmmakers like Richard Linklater can, ostensively, make the same two or three movies multiple times, I don’t see why she can’t write similar books that explore similar subject matter 🤷♀️. It just means she knows what she’s about and is following her muse.
I found the two books different enough though. If anything, I liked the similarities between them because I can relate to them
beautiful world where are you is one of the worst books ive ever read, insufferable people insufferable plot!
So I read about half of Normal People after hearing it raved about and had to give up because of the formatting. I found it so difficult to decipher what was going on without any use of quotation marks. Maybe it’s because I borrowed an ebook copy, but are the rest of her books formatted like this? Does the physical edition read normally?
I’ve read lots of things with unique formatting, or missing aspects of typical writing such as House of Leaves (and everything that has going on,) or even books where the narrator goes nameless. But I just found Normal People almost impossible to keep up with.
I like most books, but her conversations with friends books is the worst book I have ever read. I forced myself to finish it but it was so vapid, the characters had zero redeeming qualities and were entirely unrealistic (can’t believe anyone thinks like them), their problems were created by their own minds and refusal to take common sense steps to make their lives better. I wanted to yell at Frances so many times while she struggled with stupid things that could be solved so easily. I don’t understand why people like her.
> realized that it’s not fiction created by a product of high emotional intelligence, but just from an ordinary Irish person’s life.
I’m not sure I agree with this line of criticism – it is an expression of why you might have a *personal* disinclination against her work, but not an expression of the quality of work as such. I think anyone can write about any subject matter, but to write about relationships and internal mental states with skill and maturity is the mark of a writer with high emotional intelligence. Whatever criticisms you might make of Rooney, I believe this might be the weakest. This aspect of her writing is her strongest skill.
I think it’s definitely an observation that’s worth making that her stories center around a specific set of characters – highly educated, liberal arts graduates from Trinity (with slight deviations). I think this *might* be the result of a tendency in modern literary scene to rain brickbats on anyone writing stories about someone occupying an identity that has less privilege than their own (see American Dirt and its surrounding controversy). I’m hoping she feels more freedom to explore in her future works.
I would like to note though – they explore very different themes! Conversations with Friends focused on very tightly on interpersonal relationships, Normal People explored almost obssessively on a specific relationship but also explored the internal state of mind of its characters, and how political economy affected their lives as well as how it didn’t.
BW (my fav honestly) seemed to me to be about our responsibility to other human beings despite capitalism, neoliberalism, general malaise etc.
Yeah, this is true, though a lot of authors do this. It just depends on whether you like the formula or not or whether you feel it’s varied enough.
I notice it especially with short stories. How many times did John Cheever write about a troubled marriage in the suburbs with the lesson that the suburban life isn’t all it’s cut out to be? How many times did Flannery O’Connor write about a conceited, arrogant man or woman who dies at the end after having a moment of clarity?
I consider her a fad rather than a good write. I also see your point as I tried to read three of her books (I gave up on each one) and they all felt like the exact same book. BUT, many authors tend to write similar characters or write about the same theme throughout their career, to be fair.
I liked Normal People but thought it was severely overhyped… this makes me glad I didn’t read any of her other work because I strongly suspected this was the case
100% agree. I read her first “socially awkward people need love, too” novel and didn’t really see the merit in re-treading that territory. We get it, Sally.
also, the protagonists are always portrayed as somewhat anorexic, which somehow is painted as making them more interesting and more attractive?