Intermezzo

8.5 rounded up. Found this one hard to get into at first, particularly the Peter chapters. I switched to audiobook and found that the disjointed sentence structure of those sections flowed much more readily when listened to. By the end I was very invested in these characters, who are all flawed but (unlike some of Rooney’s other characters) are all trying their best to muddle their way through life and maybe even to grow as people. I feel this is her most sympathetic book yet, both in that the characters are sympathetic and that she the author feels sympathy towards them.

I love this book, so sad, so sweet. It really captures the depth and complexity of grief. highly recommend.

“Of course, he and his brother both wanted their lives to consist of winning all the time and never losing: this is presumably true of everyone. No one ever wants to lose. And yet for both Peter and Ivan, this particular feeling has perhaps been more important, more intense than for other people: the desire to win all the time, and also the naive youthful belief that it would be possible to live such a life, now soured by experience.”

This took a while to get into, and while I am not sure I liked it as much as Rooney's Normal People, I did wind up really feeling for these two brothers. I give it 4 stars for characterization - how distinctive each brother and his inner monologuing is.

thenextgoodbook.com

What’s it about?

Peter and Ivan are brothers who are both struggling with the recent loss of their father. Peter is a 32-year-old lawyer in Dublin, and Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player (who seems to have hit the pinnacle of his career about the time his father was diagnosed with cancer). Peter struggles with his feelings for two different women. At the same time, Ivan has become involved with a much older woman. The siblings struggle to define their own relationship, without their father in it.

What did it make me think about?

Grief, family, and love.

Should I read it?

Sally Rooney has been dubbed “the voice of the younger generation” by many literary critics. I understand why, even though I have liked some of her books more than others. With her fourth novel, I felt like she broke through into new territory- more mature territory. Sally Rooney’s novels seem to be maturing with her. Her ability to create deep characters has not changed. Her long and intricate dialogue has not changed. But her themes and characters seem more accessible to all readers- not just young readers. Her earlier works centered around romantic and sexual relationships between younger characters. This novel still explores those subjects but widens its lens to examine family, grief, and sibling relationships. Sally Rooney is a special writer because she manages to capture the inner dialogues of her characters as they try to make sense of the world.

Quote-

“But say with my brother, I can get very focused on being in the right. And my brain sort of glosses over anything I’ve done wrong. Because I view him differently. I don’t really think my actions affect him. I see myself as very affected by his actions, but not the other way around.”