Intermezzo

Those who have read this book may find this statement to be ridiculous, but Intermezzo was a wild read. But I mean this mostly in the sense that others have criticized, this feels too long and there are too many lulls in the story, however when it roped me back in, by god did it rope me back in. Flip flopping between boredom and feeling deep emotions, Intermezzo is the best and worst of Sally Rooney.

Peter and Ivan are, by their own admission, polar opposites as far as brothers go. 10 years apart, Peter is a successful humanitarian lawyer, a bit of a playboy, liberal, and deeply, deeply unhappy. Ivan is a recovering incel, chess whiz, awkward on most levels, and can't stand his brother. But after the death of their father and with their fairly absent mother occupied with her own family, Peter and Ivan are doing their best, and failing, at maintaining a brotherly relationship, but both are dealing with interpersonal difficulties. While at a chess tournament in a more rural part of Ireland, Ivan happens to meet Margaret, the program director of the arts center where the tournament was held. More than 10 years his senior at 36, he was shocked that they hit it off so well, and neither of them could seem to help it when they fell in love, but Margaret has her own personal issues. She's divorced from the town drunk and lives in a small town where people like to talk, and it would be the scandal of the county if she were to be seen seeing such a young man. Peter's situation is equally stressful, but completely different. While he is also involved with someone much younger than him, Naomi is a young, semi-sex worker trying to get her life together. Peter, being a former "client" of hers, has helped keep her afloat financially, but eventually allows her to stay with him after her eviction, cementing their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend. However, Sylvia, Peter's long time ex girlfriend is still in the picture. She and Peter are the best of friends, but their relationship only ended because of a terrible accident Sylvia was in which led to a lifetime of chronic pain and the inability for her to have sex, making her break up with Peter, against his wishes. Now as his feelings for both of them deepen, he doesn't know what to do to manage his feelings. This, inevitably leads to tension between he and Ivan as this cast of characters have to navigate their feelings, emotions, and societal expectations, but it may be too difficult of a challenge to overcome.

Let's get it out of the way; if you love Sally Rooney, you will love this book. It feels like an elevation of Beautiful World, and provides everything her readers have come to expect from her; Complex characters and an intensely emotional story. However this book length felt new to her, and it was an exercise of trial and error. Someone less critical may say that the ebbs and flows of heightened emotional action and lower stakes scenes were intentional, allowing the reader to breathe as they get to know the characters. But I will tell it like it is. Often this was boring. Often I wanted to skip paragraphs and pages. Often, I felt that I had an understanding of who the character was, or what the scene was trying to accomplish and I felt that it was being overwritten. This is made worse by her infamous writing style of no quotation marks, but that's not something I personally take issue with.

But damn when it gets good again, it gets REALLY good. For as bored as I felt between the 40-65% mark of this book, I felt the emotional weight tenfold when the drama ramped back up. This tackles such deep relationship dynamics head on with raw intensity. I continue to be baffled with how well Sally Rooney conveys deeply emotional feelings without resorting to over the top drama, only in conversations. Realistic but sensational, this was a really good read.