Normal People

by Sally Rooney

He understands now that his classmates are not like him. It’s easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don’t worry about appearing ignorant or conceited. They are not stupid people, but they’re not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he’ll probably never really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.

Connell that the same imagination he uses as a reader is necessary to understand real people also, and to be intimate with them.

I’m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.

Just to see Helen, her beautiful face, her smile, and to know that she continues loving him, this puts the gift of joy into his day, and for hours he feels nothing but a light-headed happiness.

Relatable

Cherries hang on the dark-green trees like earrings.

But he was never damaged like she was. She just made him feel that way.

went home that night and read over some notes he had been making for a new story, and he felt the old beat of pleasure inside his body, like watching a perfect goal, like the rustling movement of light through leaves, a phrase of music from the window of a passing car. Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.

Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.

Everything’s going to be alright, he says. Trust me. I love you, I’m not going to let anything like that happen to you again.

Felt

Would you miss me, if you didn’t have me anymore?