2021-X35: Normal People

Sally Rooney. 2018.

This is a disturbing, yet intriguing read about the complexity of relationships when you grow up with dysfunction.  While one of the protagonists has a childhood filled with ACES and trauma and gets no support for that, the book mentions that more or less just in passing, as if it is just backstory instead of the basis of the entire plot.  There are layers of complexity here, from how already vulnerable children are bullied in school to the role that BDSM can have for survivors of child abuse who are now in adult abusive relationships.  It is a painful read as the characters march through their lives oblivious to how "normal" this response is to unresolved trauma.  The loneliness and othering of child abuse survivors shifts to othering by social class as one of the bullies shifts from popular to outsider as the plot unfolds.  One of the intriguing things, though, is how the characters are allowed to grow up and change over time and the good/bad-ness of the characters is blurred as they mature and regret things they did when they were younger.  Full of tragedy and hard topics, including not only abuse, but suicide, the book is both troubling and insightful. It got in my head as I thought about it about finishing it.  

I've also been watching the Hulu show, which seems to lack one of the best the qualities of the book: A  story which itself is aware of the characters' lack of understanding about what is happening.  So, skipping the show is fine.  But, the book itself is a Recommend.

​Recommend.

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