NPR's Book of the Day Looking back at 'Normal People,' before Sally Rooney’s rise to fame
Jan 28, 2026
Sally Rooney, an Irish novelist who explores relationships, class, and identity, revisits Normal People. She discusses how a private romance shapes identity. She talks about shared suffering, shifting social status in college, the effects of distance, and how her characters keep living beyond the page.
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Relationship Shapes Young Identity
- Normal People tracks two young people trying to figure themselves out while entangled in intimacy and desire.
- Sally Rooney frames their bond as formative to identity during late adolescence.
Mutual Recognition Of Suffering
- Both Connell and Marianne suffer, but Rooney suggests everyone around them likely suffers too.
- They uniquely recognize each other's pain because they can 'see through' one another in ways others can't.
Limited Self-Awareness Isn't Just Age
- Rooney notes the characters' self-awareness often fails, partly because they're very young.
- She also allows that such failures might persist beyond youth as individual traits.
