I loved this. It’s made me want to read Intermezzo even more. I’m also autistic so I found your review (if we can call it that), really interesting and helpful. Thank you!
This post was fantastically written and it made me want to read Intermezzo. The reference to Anna Burns clinched it as reading Milkman was a very vivid experience for me, but I have not been able to find anything similar.
I also would recommend Eimear McBride, who in some ways is the writer people imagine Sally Rooney is—The Lesser Bohemians has a very melodramatic, even soap opera plot paired with fairly intricate language (went back to the first couple pages of TLBs for an example, so, one picked at random: "Against my tick-tocking minus in life – books and films, fancied plays I’ll be in, men surely meet, New York taxis maybe run for in elegant heels").
The novel she wrote after TLB, Strange Hotel, is my favorite and it is much more tame, language-wise… but it works better if you read TLB first.
Also Paul Murray's The Bee Sting uses this sort of language to represent one character's POV—probably my favorite novel from last year.
This is the only place I've come across anyone looking at Ivan's supposed neurodivergence. I'm half way through the book and still not sure how I feel about the autisic label just sitting there from Chapter 1 without further interrogation but this piece clarified a lot, thank you!
Glad to hear it. I think it gets quite a lot of interrogation, but not openly, or diagnostically, which emphasises to us something like a dichotomy between the real cluster of traits that is an individual versus the casual labelling of people as Peter does in Chapter 1.
This is a great piece, thank you. It was especially timely, as I just finished reading Intermezzo a few days ago. You've highlighted aspects of the writing I hadn’t noticed before. But as a psychologist, it's always a pleasure to read Rooney's work.
Such a good book, and a good review. Not sure I understand all the hand-wringing about her. Shouldn’t we all be celebrating the refinement of her powerful voice? Whether Joycean or not, whether sentimental or not, she is a writer who is both illuminating the strange world in which we live right now and is immensely pleasurable to read.
I loved this. It’s made me want to read Intermezzo even more. I’m also autistic so I found your review (if we can call it that), really interesting and helpful. Thank you!
I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts!
This post was fantastically written and it made me want to read Intermezzo. The reference to Anna Burns clinched it as reading Milkman was a very vivid experience for me, but I have not been able to find anything similar.
I was grateful to her for telling me that as I didn't know
I also would recommend Eimear McBride, who in some ways is the writer people imagine Sally Rooney is—The Lesser Bohemians has a very melodramatic, even soap opera plot paired with fairly intricate language (went back to the first couple pages of TLBs for an example, so, one picked at random: "Against my tick-tocking minus in life – books and films, fancied plays I’ll be in, men surely meet, New York taxis maybe run for in elegant heels").
The novel she wrote after TLB, Strange Hotel, is my favorite and it is much more tame, language-wise… but it works better if you read TLB first.
Also Paul Murray's The Bee Sting uses this sort of language to represent one character's POV—probably my favorite novel from last year.
now I'm rereading bits of Milkman… that book was so good!!
I loved Intermezzo. The chapters featuring Peter replicate the style of thought that one has when waking at 3 am and unable to go back to sleep.
Yes I liked it too
This is the only place I've come across anyone looking at Ivan's supposed neurodivergence. I'm half way through the book and still not sure how I feel about the autisic label just sitting there from Chapter 1 without further interrogation but this piece clarified a lot, thank you!
Glad to hear it. I think it gets quite a lot of interrogation, but not openly, or diagnostically, which emphasises to us something like a dichotomy between the real cluster of traits that is an individual versus the casual labelling of people as Peter does in Chapter 1.
This is a great piece, thank you. It was especially timely, as I just finished reading Intermezzo a few days ago. You've highlighted aspects of the writing I hadn’t noticed before. But as a psychologist, it's always a pleasure to read Rooney's work.
Delighted to hear it
Such a good book, and a good review. Not sure I understand all the hand-wringing about her. Shouldn’t we all be celebrating the refinement of her powerful voice? Whether Joycean or not, whether sentimental or not, she is a writer who is both illuminating the strange world in which we live right now and is immensely pleasurable to read.
A lot of critics seem to go a little odd when they review Rooney
a likeable read, as the saying it is not what you say but the it is said