Normal People

Last updated

Normal People
Normal People (Rooney novel).png
First edition cover
Author Sally Rooney
Audio read byAoife McMahon
CountryIreland
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel (Romance)
Set in Dublin and Carricklea, County Sligo [1]
Publisher Faber & Faber
Publication date
30 August 2018
Media typePrint
Pages266
Awards2019 British Book Award for Book of the Year [2]
ISBN 978-0-571-33464-3
OCLC 1061023590
823/.92
LC Class PR6118.O59 N67 2018

Normal People is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Normal People is Rooney's second novel, published after Conversations with Friends (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. [3] The book became a best-seller in the US, selling almost 64,000 copies in hardcover in its first four months of release. [4] A critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated television adaptation of the same name aired from April 2020 on BBC Three and Hulu. A number of publications ranked it one of the best books of the 2010s.

Contents

Synopsis

The novel follows the complex friendship and relationship between two teenagers, Connell and Marianne, who both attend the same secondary school in County Sligo, Ireland, and, later, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). It is set during the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, from 2011 through 2015. [5] Connell is a popular, handsome, and highly intelligent secondary school student who begins a relationship with the unpopular, intimidating, equally intelligent Marianne, whose mother employs Connell's mother as a cleaner. Connell keeps the affair a secret from school friends out of shame, but ends up attending Trinity with Marianne after the summer and reconciling. Well-off Marianne blossoms at university, becoming pretty and popular, while Connell struggles for the first time in his life to fit in properly with his peers. The two weave in and out of each other's lives during their university years, developing an intense bond that exposes their traumas and insecurities.

Reception

Normal People received wide critical acclaim. [6] It was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. [7] It was voted as the 2018 Waterstones' Book of the Year [8] and won "Best Novel" at the 2018 Costa Book Awards. [9] In 2019, the novel was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. [10] In the same year, it was ranked 25th on The Guardian 's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. [11]

Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheahan described the book as a polemic, noting that Rooney has described herself as a Marxist and that the book features discussions about The Communist Manifesto document and Doris Lessing's feminist novel The Golden Notebook . [12]

Entertainment Weekly writers ranked the book as the 10th best of the decade, with Seija Rankin writing, "Both of Sally Rooney's novels capture the millennial ethos with raw honesty and impeccable insight. But what she broke ground with in Conversations With Friends, she perfected in Normal People." [13]

Dwight Garner in The New York Times wrote, "Sally Rooney’s sentences are droll, nimble and matter-of-fact. There’s nothing particularly special about them, except for the way she throws them. She’s like one of those elite magicians who can make a playing card pierce the rind of a watermelon." [14]

Awards

AwardYearResult
Costa Book Awards for Best Novel 2018Won [9]
British Book Award for Book of the Year 2019Won [2]
Man Booker Prize 2018Longlisted [7]
Women's Prize for Fiction 2019Longlisted [10]

Adaptation

In May 2019, BBC Three and Hulu announced that a TV series based on the novel was set to be produced. It premiered on 26 April 2020 on BBC Three and 27 April 2020 on the Australian streaming service Stan. [15] In Ireland, the series began airing on RTÉ One on 28 April 2020. The series stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell. [16] The show garnered critical acclaim and became BBC iPlayer's most-watched show of 2020 with over 62 million streams that year. [17]

Themes

Normal People has themes of love across class division. The main characters, Marianne and Connell, know each other from school but also because Connell's mother is a cleaner for Marianne's mother. [18] This establishes the class divide in their relationship.

Marianne and Connell have different views of their socioeconomic backgrounds. [19] Connell feels that he is trapped in a cycle where the money he spends on Marianne comes from his mother who gets it from Marianne's family whereas Marianne seems unbothered by spending money. [18] Connell lets the class divide come between them numerous times as he fears how he will be perceived. In school, Connell is popular and well liked by his classmates, unlike Marianne. This causes him to ask her to keep their relationship secret so that people do not find out his mum works for hers. [18]

When the pair both attend Trinity College, the class division becomes more apparent. [19] Marianne easily fits in with her upper-class classmates who come from similar backgrounds, some of whom look down on Connell for his lower socioeconomic status. [20] As their relationship continues, their class background drives them apart. Marianne and Connell start to find friends and partners in their respective social classes. When Marianne starts to date Jamie in their second year at university, Connell feels out of place in her world because of his lack of wealth. [20]

Socioeconomic class drives Marianne and Connell apart as they navigate early adulthood. Rooney uses these characters to explore how class divides keep people apart.

Related Research Articles

Nicholas Laird is a Northern Irish novelist and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph O'Neill (writer, born 1964)</span> Irish novelist & non-fiction writer

Joseph O'Neill is an Irish novelist and non-fiction writer. O'Neill's novel Netherland was awarded the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.

<i>The Stinging Fly</i> Irish literary magazine

The Stinging Fly is a literary magazine published in Ireland, featuring short stories, essays, and poetry. It publishes two issues each year. In 2005, The Stinging Fly moved into book publishing with the establishment of The Stinging Fly Press. The magazine has been described as "something of a revelation in Irish literature" by The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Burns</span> Irish writer

Anna Burns FRSL is an author from Northern Ireland. Her novel Milkman won the 2018 Booker Prize, the 2019 Orwell Prize for political fiction, and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award.

Lucy Caldwell is a Northern Irish playwright and novelist. She was the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award and of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize.

The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is an annual award for Irish authors of fiction, established in 1995. It was previously known as the Kerry Ingredients Book of the Year Award (1995–2000), the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Award (2001–2002), and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award (2003-2011).

<i>A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing</i> 2013 novel by Eimear McBride

A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing is the debut novel of Eimear McBride published in 2013.

Claire Kilroy is a contemporary Irish author. She was born, and currently resides, in Dublin, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Rooney</span> Irish author

Sally Rooney is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published three novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021). The first two were adapted into the television miniseries Normal People (2020) and Conversations with Friends (2022).

<i>Conversations with Friends</i> 2017 novel by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends is the 2017 debut novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney, about two young women who become involved with an older couple in Dublin's literary scene. The novel was published by Faber and Faber and received critical acclaim. A television adaptation, also called Conversations with Friends, was released in 2022.

<i>Milkman</i> (novel) 2012 novel by Anna Burns

Milkman is a historical psychological fiction novel written by the Northern Irish author Anna Burns. Set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the story follows an 18-year-old girl, "middle sister," who is harassed by an older married man known as "the milkman" and then as "Milkman". It is Burns's first novel to be published after Little Constructions in 2007, and is her third overall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Edgar-Jones</span> British actress (born 1998)

Daisy Jessica Edgar-Jones is a British actress. She began her career with the television series Cold Feet (2016–2020) and War of the Worlds (2019–2021). She gained recognition for her starring role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), which earned her nominations for a British Academy Television Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Normal People is an Irish romantic psychological drama television miniseries produced by Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu in association with Screen Ireland. It is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Sally Rooney. The series follows the relationship between Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron, as they navigate adulthood from their final days in secondary school to their undergraduate years in Trinity College. The series was primarily written by Rooney and Alice Birch and directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Mescal</span> Irish actor (born 1996)

Paul Colm Michael Mescal is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Alice Birch is a British playwright and screenwriter. Birch has written several plays, including Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. for which she was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright, and Anatomy of a Suicide for which she won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Birch was also the screenwriter for the film Lady Macbeth and has written for such television shows as Succession, Normal People, and Dead Ringers.

Aoife Josee Patarot-Hinds is an actress. She is known for her roles in the BBC Three and Hulu miniseries Normal People (2020), the ITV series The Long Call (2021), and the film Hellraiser (2022).

India Mullen is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles in the Virgin Media One series Red Rock (2015–2017) and The Vanishing Triangle (2023), the BBC Three and Hulu miniseries Normal People (2020), and the third series of the Sky Max comedy-drama Brassic (2021).

<i>Normal Sheeple</i> 2021 book by Paul Howard

Normal Sheeple is a 2021 book by Irish playwright and author Paul Howard and is the twenty-first novel in the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly series.

<i>Crudo</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Olivia Laing

Crudo is a 2018 novel by Olivia Laing. The book, Laing's first novel, incorporates autobiographical elements and details from the life of American author Kathy Acker. The novel was well-received, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Conversations with Friends is an Irish television serial based on the 2017 novel of the same name by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Developed by Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu in association with RTÉ, it is the second adaptation by this crew of a Rooney novel after Normal People in 2020. Conversations with Friends was first broadcast on 15 May 2022. The series received mixed reviews with praise for the performance of lead cast and aesthetics.

References

  1. ↑ Hagan, Rachel (31 May 2019). "The BBC Unveils Plans For Adaptation Of Normal People By Sally Rooney". Elle . Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Sally Rooney's Normal People wins big at British Book Awards". BBC News . 14 May 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "Normal People". Faber & Faber . Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  4. ↑ Grady, Constance (3 September 2019). "The cult of Sally Rooney". Vox. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  5. ↑ Rooney, Sally (2019), Normal people A Novel, Inc OverDrive, New York, ISBN   978-1-9848-4334-0, OCLC   1090829156 , retrieved 7 May 2021{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ "Bookmark | Book Marks" . Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  7. 1 2 Flood, Alison (23 July 2018). "Man Booker prize 2018 longlist includes graphic novel for the first time". The Guardian.
  8. ↑ "Love story Normal People is Waterstones' book of the year". BBC News. 29 November 2018.
  9. 1 2 "The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es named Costa Book of the Year 2018". Front Row. BBC Radio 4.
  10. 1 2 "Announcing the Women's Prize 2019 Longlist". Women's Prize for Fiction. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  11. ↑ "The 100 best books of the 21st century". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  12. ↑ Sheahan, Fionnán (23 May 2020). "It's Marianne's fault we can't get a government to satisfy Normal People". Irish Independent . Retrieved 23 May 2020. The author of Normal People is a self-professed Marxist... her politics seeps through her writing. It's no accident the central protagonists of the book that has captured the nation's imagination are the rich girl living in the mansion and the poor boy whose mother works as her family's cleaner. The TV version glosses over the discussions around 'The Communist Manifesto' and the feminist bible 'The Golden Notebook'.
  13. ↑ Rankin, Sally (25 November 2019). "Here are EW's top 10 fiction books of the decade". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  14. ↑ Garner, Dwight (8 April 2019). "Sally Rooney's 'Normal People' Explores Intense Love Across Social Classes". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  15. ↑ Russo, Rebecca (1 April 2020). "An adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel 'Normal People' is heading to Stan". Time Out Melbourne . Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  16. ↑ "Hulu Orders New Series: "Normal People"". The Futon Critic . 30 May 2019.
  17. ↑ "Normal People easily biggest series on BBC iPlayer with 62.7 million streams in 2020". Radio Times . 8 December 2020.
  18. 1 2 3 Rooney, Sally (2018). Normal People. Canada: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN   9780735276475.
  19. 1 2 Garner, Dwight (8 April 2019). "Sally Rooney's 'Normal People' Explores Intense Love Across Social Classes". New York Times.
  20. 1 2 Eppel, Alan (5 July 2022). "Normal People: the self-at-best and the self-at-worst". Journal of Psychiatry Reform. 8 (5).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.