Kat Rutschilling ‘25
Photo by Kat Rutschilling
“Intermezzo,”the latest novel by Irish bestselling author Sally Rooney, has been many people’s most anticipated book of the year. Following the success of her previous novels “Conversations with Friends,” “Normal People,” and “Beautiful World Where Are You,” Rooney has amassed a devoted following of readers who have waited patiently for another novel, and the time has nearly arrived. As a massive Rooney fan myself, I was lucky enough to get early access to read the book back in July and I have been thinking about the novel ever since.
As someone so familiar with Rooney’s other novels, I couldn’t help myself from trying to find a place for “Intermezzo” amongst her work while I was reading it. “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People,” her first two novels, cover themes of youth and coming of age through intimate relationships and evolving sexuality. The novels feel young and stylistically similar through the use of unadorned prose. “Intermezzo” lands much closer to her third novel “Beautiful World Where Are You,” cementing a stylistic evolution for the author marked by a large web of interconnected lives observed through multiple points of view. With “Intermezzo,” Rooney goes even further and unflinchingly into a stream-of-conscious observational style through two different third-person narrative voices: brothers Peter and Ivan. Much like in “Beautiful World,” Rooney incorporates the lives of those involved with the main characters to paint an expansive picture, but the author goes even further to differentiate the two brothers’ points of view through her stylistic choices.
As the brothers continue their lives in the wake of their father’s death, older brother Peter—a lawyer with feelings for both his ex-girlfriend and a college student ten years his junior—is narrated in the third person but with frighteningly close and pointed glimpses of his thoughts and observations. Between his deep emotional malaise and substance use, many of his passages read like lists rather than a narrative. Ivan, on the other hand—a middling chess prodigy who becomes involved with an older woman—goes through the world with great uncertainty but also naivete. In contrast to Peter, many of his chapters flow seamlessly from anxious pondering to uncomplicated romantic affection. This dynamic brilliantly captures the breadth of what Rooney has already done so well across all of her previous novels. Peter’s life and worries are that of an experienced adult, much like what we see in the various characters of “Beautiful World”; Ivan’s view of life is fresh and full of novel observation, comparable to the characters in “Normal People” or “Conversations with Friends.”
Rooney’s portrayals of both sibling dynamics and unconventional romantic relationships in “Intermezzo” are phenomenal. Each character is painted unflinchingly: they are on the wrong side of arguments, they allow their feelings to inform bad decisions, they hurt each other, they are stubborn, they are wrong. And yet, the reader cannot help but love them, just as the characters cannot help their love for each other. They are all so tangible that, though they are fictional and unique, readers can draw connections between them and the flawed people they know and love in their own lives.
The pace of the book was something that I had not expected. All of Rooney’s previous novels, while not fast-paced, felt devourable. I read both “Normal People” and “Conversations with Friends” within a day, and “Beautiful World” only took me a couple of days. “Intermezzo,” however, felt like it required a great deal of focus to read at times, which slowed down my reading experience significantly. Especially in the beginning, some of the chapters felt abstract and dense in a way that made it difficult to ground myself in the book. The chapters that follow Peter were the biggest culprits of this phenomenon; even though these passages were masterfully crafted, as a part of a greater novel they detracted a bit from my enjoyment of the book. It certainly got better as the chapters progressed, and I don’t necessarily disparage “Intermezzo” for it in hindsight. I would just recommend to other Rooney-Heads that this book requires a bit of savoring rather than binging.
Overall, this book delivers on the excellence that audiences have come to expect from Sally Rooney, while building on previous works to create something stylistically innovative and exciting. It’s a must-read for people with complicated sibling relationships, complicated romantic relationships, or those owning chess boards.
“Intermezzo” will be available for purchase on September 24, 2024.