Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Curiosity got the best of me. I fell for the hype. “Normal People,” as someone claimed, a “profound novel … great fiction”? I had to find out. Well, it isn’t. Implausibility is a powerful antidote for curiosity, and implausibility set in early. As introduced, “Marianne” is said to be very disliked and highly unpopular in high school — a pariah, in effect. But the author presents no information to prove that. Throughout the novel, we are too often “told” and too infrequently “shown.” “Connell,” Marianne’s counterpoint character, is said to dislike having sex and feels bad afterward. Why? Why is that? Again, we are told, not shown. Why should we believe it? When they become friends, Connell marches through school pretending he doesn’t even know Marianne, even after their relationship becomes sexual. They are not “dating.” She is not his “girlfriend.” So what’s wrong with this guy? Is it because he’s “popular” and she is “unpopular” and he’s afraid of losing status? Is it a class thing, she is rich and he is not? When they reach college together, all this changes — miraculously. And implausibly. Apart from the problematic construction of the characters and the lack of plot design, some of the author’s stylistic mannerisms distract and annoy. — Many granular descriptions of the action. For example, Marianne’s eating a lemon confection is rendered in microscopic detail. These asides throughout the story add nothing to it and give it a feeling of mere clutter rather than the psychological insight which perhaps the author intended. — At times, a character asks a question — perhaps Marianne asks Connell — and the answer is provided only following a long, interceding paragraph. Why? To what effect except irritation? — Other times, we are well into a chapter before it becomes clear who the “he” and “she” speakers are. There are a number of contradictions and inconsistencies, incoherent statements and illogical observations and sudden, jolting turns in “Normal People” but I’ll quit grumbling by saying that, overall, the novel suffers from sloppy writing and sleepy editing. My curiosity was dashed, my high hopes disappointed. However, things do improve in the latter part when on page 259 Connell threatens to kill Marianne’s evil brother. But that’s only 14 pages from the end.