By Terry Kenneally
Sally Rooney has been described as the preeminent millennial, one of the most loved women writers working today. Her success rankles. Midnight release parties are scheduled in many bookstores for her new novel, Intermezzo, as if it were “Harry Potter,” Book 8. She’s been called the Salinger of the Snapchat generation.
Intermezzo is her fourth novel. In her previous three novels, Conversations with Friends, Beautiful World Where Are You and Normal People, her characters don’t arrive singly, but in twos and threes. She follows that formula in Intermezzo.
Intermezzo is about two brothers, Peter, a successful barrister in Dublin, and Ivan, who is shyer, geekier, 10 years younger, wears braces and plays competitive chess. They are mourning the death of their father and there is a lingering bitterness between them.
Peter, 32, is caught between two women, Sylvia, his longtime girlfriend who left him after she was gravely and permanently injured in a car crash, and Naomi, who is 23 and borderline homeless. The overriding love story in the novel however is between Ivan, who is 22, and Margaret, a 36year old, divorced, arts-program director he meets at a chess event. She fears the social repercussions of dating a much younger man, yet she blossoms under his touch and he under hers.
An intermezzo in music is a light composition played between the acts of an opera; in dining, it is a palate cleaner between courses; in chess it is an unexpected move. Between the time of mourning, the brothers begin romantic relationships that would be what they need to survive in a trying time. I don’t want to ruin Intermezzo for readers who may have queued at midnight for a copy, but I don’t think any of them will be upset by the ending.
In Intermezzo, Rooney molds a style for each of the brothers, who narrate the novel in alternate chapters (the thoughts of the women they love are heard in each chapter too). The book has been called overlong and under cooked by some critics, nonetheless, it is a TOP SHELF read about grief, love, and family.
Read more of Terry’s Off the Shelf Reviews HERE
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Terry Kenneally
*Terrence Kenneally is an attorney and owner of the Kenneally Law Firm in Rocky River, Ohio. He earned his Irish Studies degree from John Carroll University and teaches Irish history and literature at Elyria Catholic High School.
