*Spoilers ahead for Normal People by Sally Rooney*
Some love stories end in a perfectly manicured way, tied with a bow, while doves coo the tune of a wedding hymn. Others end in shattered plates, screaming matches, and a definitive, resounding “goodbye.” Normal People by Sally Rooney finds the nuance between the two, navigating the in-between of a love story that is neither neat nor explosive, but something far more haunting — unfinished.Â
Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan orbit each other for years, weaving in and out of each other’s lives. Their story remains suspended in a state of constant possibility, like a book with missing pages. Connell and Marianne’s love is constantly met with the curse of poor timing, miscommunication, internal struggles, and external judgment. Their love isn’t about grand love declarations or “happily ever after,” it’s about the aching reality of almost-love and the way certain people in our lives imprint on us forever, even when they’re no longer ours.
Connell and Marianne share an undeniable connection, a quiet certainty that they belong to each other in some unspoken way. Despite this, they can never verbalize what they mean to each other, leading to a cycle of uncertainty and misinterpretation.
At the novel’s close, Marianne encourages Connell to pursue his career and follow his dreams in New York while she stays behind in Dublin. The final pages leave their fate interpretable to the reader: Will they ever reunite or is there an end to every cycle? As Marianne reflects, “She closes her eyes. He probably won’t come back, she thinks. Or he will, differently. What they have now they can never have back again. But for her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy. He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once. They’ve done a lot of good for each other. Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another. You should go, she says. I’ll always be here. You know that.”
Normal People poses an unsettling question: Can the right person ever truly come at the wrong time? Or does bad timing mean they were never ours to keep? As Connell and Marianne drift apart and come back together, it becomes clear that their love exists in the space between what was and what could have been, always slipping through their fingers. Their connection, though undeniable, is forever bound by the limitations of timing, leaving them to wonder if the love they share is something they were never meant to hold on to, or just something that slipped away too soon.