Until a few days ago I would tell you that I wasn't overly fond of the author Sally Rooney. Words that came to mind were things like overrated, boring, twee, stifling... not great words to use for somebody who's one of Irelands most popular and read contemporary authors.
I'm mean, like, I did enjoy Normal People. I really liked the series of Normal People more - it was done so well. It captures first love better than almost any other book out there.
But Beautiful World, Where Are You? was a complete snooze fest. Dreadful characters, grim situations. It wasn't good. I wasn't taken with Conversations with Friends either.
So, Sally Rooney was put on the authors to avoid list, or at least on the list to think about twice before reading again.
Elif Shafak is temporarily on that list, but only because I've read a bit too much of her in the last five years. I do like her, but she needs to be rested.
Zadie Smith is edging onto the list. We read The Fraud last year for book group and I'd need a bit of prodding to read something else of hers for a while. Then again, I really liked her Swing Time and White Teeth.
I've never gelled with Kate Grenville. I say that and a lot of people will never read me again. She's just not my cup of tea, and and I can't put my finger on why.
And after The White Tiger, I never want to read Aravind Adiga again, although he's a darling of the literary world - and yes, I know he gives an interesting look at the Indian diaspora.
So, here's my dilemma. Sally Rooney's lastest book, Intermezzo, is all over the shops. The blurb on Goodreads.com is as such:
"Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.
Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.
Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.
For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking."
And rather than read it on paper, I used one of my credits to get the audiobook. On paper I'm still making my way through Paul Miller's The Bee Sting and I picked up a Maggie Alderson, which is light and fun. I've just finished Pip Williams' The Bookbinder of Jericho for the second time - re-reading it for book group - and it was very enjoyable. It was a good break from The Bee Sting.
Anyway, I started Intermezzo the other day. I'm about 25% into the book. And I'm really liking it. Maybe it's the format. The actor doing the narration has an awesome, mellifluous voice. But I'm liking the story.
Do I get to bag Sally Rooney anymore? It's a big question.
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