Normal People - Was the book better?

#bookvsmovie

This book and series were both such surprise packages, they will both have you glued, but also, maybe not?

What I mean by that is, the book is such a slice of life, it doesn’t transport you to a magical fantasy land, but what it does give you is a peek behind the curtain. It gives you the whole human emotion and it feels familiar. The feelings are up close and center, a fact that echoes through both the book and the movie.

The story revolves around Connell and Marianne, schoolkids in Sligo, Ireland. Connell, the jock, is quite taken by Marianne, the silent but sassy nerd. But to sum up the story in these clichés is exactly what the book and the series tries to undo.

Connell does well at both studies and sports, and he is a shy, well mannered boy. His mother, who had him as a teen, works as a cleaner in Marianne’s house. Connell drives to the big house to pick up his mother and it is there a curious friendship is formed.

There are many comparisons to be drawn on the basic storyline by calling it Hum Tum or When Harry Met Sally or One Day, but none as casually warm as this. While the book does its best to take you to Ireland, it is the series that puts you in the midst of Sligo. The actor, Paul Mescal, has the most curious hems and haws, unlike any I have seen on screen. It is these spaces that he sets that truly make Connell come alive, it’s not a forced stuttering dialoguey spiel that makes these characters, it is the fact that the dialogue writers, and Sally Rooney the author, thought ‘Hm’ or ‘Ach’ was an adequate dialogue.

The accents, the setting, the isms of the entire show takes you deep into Sligo, but ultimately it is the characters, the focal points of the stories that perform brilliantly.

Marianne of the book is the girl I associate with most, seeing myself in her reticence within the bounds of her sharp mind. The Marianne of the show, with her slightly posher accent than Connell, is the girl that you see beaming power but having nowhere to project it.

There is a definite difference between the book and the series, where in the book you buy into their love story a bit more, for you have already seen where they come from, whereas in the series, I didn’t buy the start of their romance, nor did I buy Connell’s reactions to an event towards the end.

There is a very important thought process extrapolated in the book that explains a lot of the characters' reactions. Why does Connell not ask Marianne to go with him, why does Marianne not ask Connell to stay? These questions are upsetting in the TV series, but extremely logical reactions in the book. Connell’s image that he has worked so hard to create, despite the fact that he is not comfortable in it, is something that he has to uphold. Marianne’s upbringing in which she has internalised that she must never ask anyone for anything, is why she takes Connell’s decision at face value.

Despite these nuances, the TV series does a brilliant job of portraying life in an extremely real and painful manner, an underlying feeling that stays very true to the book.

The acting by Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, is outstanding and I am extremely glad that Sally Rooney has written the show as well.

I must admit that while both of these renditions of the story are achingly real and absorbing, they also leave your mind rapidly. Not that they are forgettable moments, but that they are so real you internalize them and move on.

So to sum up, I will use Daisy’s comment in one of her interviews where she mentioned a quote by Sally in which she defines Connell and Marianne’s relationship as two figure skaters. They glide around each other, silently and in perfect harmony, to meet in ecstasy but also separate to mark their own journey.

I am heavily paraphrasing, but oh well. You get the picture.

Is the book better?

I’d say they’re very evenly matched.

Different pace, but similar feeling. 10/10