Normal People by Sally Rooney is a beautifully written coming of age tale that explores the intricacies of friendship and love.

Overview:

We are introduced to Connell and Marianne who grew up in the same small town. At school, Connell is one of the popular kids, well liked, while Marianne is a loner and ostracized by her classmates. Both are raised by single mothers but in very different households. Marianne comes from money but has a very disjointed homelife and a troubled relationship with her mother and her older brother. Connell’s mother is Marianne’s housekeeper and is very close with her son. The juxtaposition of the two households is quite striking.

But when the two connect we see something that is both—awkward yet electrifying— and weaves itself throughout the book.

A year later, while studying at Trinity College in Dublin it seems as though their lives may have traded places. Suddenly Marianne finds her footing and self confidence and seems to enjoy a happy social life. Connell on the other hands, struggles to fit in, always feeling like an outsider, shy and uncertain of himself.

Over the years we watch as Marianne and Connell’s lives join together and pull apart as they meet other people and engage in new experiences, and yet what is always evident is their unwavering love for one another. Their attraction is magnetic.

Normal People is a coming of age story that celebrates friendship and love. We watch as the story unfolds from an awkward first conversation to a bond that will never broken - two young people who, despite their greatest efforts to try to live separate lives find that they might not be able to…

Normal People was an amazing read that has you thinking about all the many layers of friendship and love. There’s a little Collin and Marianne in all of us, I suspect. You’ll at once want to devour it in one sitting and yet savor each delicious word.

I highly recommend reading the book before turning to Hulu. As good a job as they did transitioning this to the small screen, the beauty in the prose simply cannot be adequately captured.

 Praise for Normal People:

NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (People) from the author of Conversations with Friends, “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan).

 
ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE—Entertainment Weekly
TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—People, Slate, The New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson
AND BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country