Normal People: A Solution To Your Technological Induced Addiction

Reading seems to be going out of style. Now the question is: Is this predicament due to this generation's, and I use this next term heavily, addiction to technology or is it just because attention spans have decreased to only allow room for 15 second videos, which if it is any longer, we immediately disengage. 

Personally I do think it is a bit of both, nonetheless it is still a large problem within today's society. I'm here to offer a small solution to this problem, a solution you won't be able to put down even if you tried. This suggestion is a novel called Normal People and it's written by a woman named Sally Rooney. It's an amazing read and I might go as far to say it's one of my new favorites.

The story is very ordinary, hence the name. Though, “there’s nothing particularly remarkable about the narrative itself,“ (Variety), it dives complexly into the lives of two teenagers who just can't seem to leave each other. The New York Times calls it “an empathetic study of two young people coming, together, of age.” This young adult novel is a romance as much as a day to day journal of Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan and definitely relatable to teens across the globe. 

Rooney’s style is amazingly comforting. PorterHouse claims there's a “freshness” about it. She maintains simplicity all while exuding extremely detailed descriptions. With every specific detail, she borders on boring but pulls back just in time so as to never cross that line and as a result, lose the reader's interest. 

Then, contrary to her overall style, the sections with imagery have such small amounts of detail but seem so personal to the character or scene being described that you cannot imagine it any other way. 

I also found myself noticing how the main characters, Connell and Marianne, found themselves throughout the book. Not necessarily in a sense of self (they were both still very lost within the world at the end) but more of finding confidence and a voice, at the very least when conversing with each other. The reader can feel this throughout the novel as well as the characters maturing, which is one of the beautiful things about how Rooney manipulates tone and diction.

Another asset to the story is how it is told from both the perspectives of Connell and Marianne. Though I found the perspectives did leave me with the uneasy worldier view that in the end, we as humans, whether that be partners, siblings, friends or children, will never really know exactly what someone thinks or how they feel about us, even within the most intimate  relationships.

As I'm well aware both sections were written by the same person, I did find there was more detail in how Connell would describe things he felt or observed while Marriane focused more on people around her, rather than her own feelings. This, in the end, did represent her character overall. But then again, sections like Connell’s are pieces that I’m personally more drawn to.

When the story ended, I was hit with a feeling of longing for it to continue and get closure with being able to see how and where they both end up. Though I did realize in the end that the book ended at the perfect spot and shouldn't have ended any other way.

The whole novel proved to depict a relentless cycle of strangers to friends to lovers then back to strangers and though I won't spoil anything, it did end partially nonchalant but again represented their relationship perfectly. It's mentioned a few times that they will never be able to escape this cycle and that maybe they don't want to. 

This theme Rooney keeps up throughout the book demonstrates her interesting take on the teenage mind while keeping the reader engaged in a heart wrenchingly “normal” novel. So, if you're looking to put that phone down, and pick up a book, make the choice of picking up Normal People by Sally Ronney.