Intermezzo – Sally Rooney

This book took me a while to get into, but once I did for the most part I enjoyed it. It is definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, exploring how two brothers, Peter and Ivan, deal with grief after their father’s death.

There is a real contrast between the brothers. Peter is older, with a successful career as a lawyer and seemingly confident, but underneath he is emotionally lost and struggling with his relationships. Ivan is younger, quieter, and socially awkward with a passion for chess.

I found the characters and their relationships interesting, particularly the way old hurts and misunderstandings affect the brothers as they try to find their way forward. There are also several complicated romantic relationships, which add another layer to the story.

I was particularly invested in Ivan and Margaret’s relationship. Despite their age difference their connection felt genuine, and I enjoyed seeing how it developed. I also liked seeing how being with Margaret affected Ivan and gave him a different way of looking at himself and his life.

I found Peter’s relationships with Sylvia and Naomi more complicated. Sylvia, his former partner, has such a significant place in his life, and their relationship is complicated by the changes in her circumstances following an accident that left her with chronic pain. I found their situation both sad and difficult. Naomi is very different from Sylvia. She is younger, more spontaneous and seems to approach life with a different attitude. I found their characters interesting, but would have liked to understand more about what they really wanted from Peter.

Rooney explores grief, loneliness love, family and the messiness of relationships in a way that often feels realistic. The characters can be selfish, confused and contradictory, and they don’t always understand what they want or how their actions affect others. Her fragmented writing style took some getting used to, particularly Peter’s inner thoughts, but it does reflect his unsettled state of mind and the confusion he is experiencing.

I also liked the way chess is woven into the story. It’s about thinking ahead and trying to work out what the other person might do, but life and relationships aren’t nearly so predictable. I thought the title Intermezzo was a clever choice, as in chess it refers to an unexpected move that interrupts the expected sequence of play. In a way, their father’s death does something similar, disrupting both brothers’ lives and forcing them to rethink things.

Although I found parts of the book slow, I became increasingly invested in the characters as the story progressed. I found the ending genuinely hopeful. The characters don’t suddenly have everything figured out, but there is a sense that things can change and perhaps even be repaired.

I really wanted to enjoy Intermezzo, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me. I struggled to connect with the characters and found the lack of plot made the book feel a little slow and directionless. I realise this is very much Sally Rooney’s style, focusing on relationships, inner thoughts and the messiness of everyday life rather than a strong storyline, but I need a little more to keep me interested.

I found the relationships both brothers had with their girlfriends a bit uncomfortable. I don’t generally have a problem with age gaps between partners, but in this case, some of the dynamics felt a little off to me.

There’s no denying Rooney is good at exploring complicated emotions and relationships, and I can see why her writing appeals to so many readers. However, despite some interesting themes around grief, love and family, I never really warmed to the characters or became invested in their stories.

In this novel, Rooney explores relationships between siblings, parents, and lovers, and what is considered a relationship norm, with both of her lead characters seeking unconventional connections. However, there is a lot of internal dialogue which sometimes felt a bit like rinse and repeat. I was drawn in at the start but lost interest around the middle, only to gain it back again towards the end. Though in saying that, I was never heavily invested in the storyline.

Rooney developed her characters well. I really liked Ivan with his boyish, nerdy charm. Though his constant apologising annoyed me at first, upon reflection, it actually aligned quite well with his personality. The one person I couldn’t quite understand was Peter’s previous girlfriend, Sylvia. I never warmed to her, and I felt her character was a bit undercooked. Her reasoning for her actions didn’t quite add up for me. On the other hand, I really liked Margaret, an older woman trying to figure out if she should just jump in boots and all, or call it quits while she still had her dignity.

Overall, it was a nice read fully focused on the internal struggles of the lead characters, with little action or plot to consider. I would recommend this to people who enjoy character-driven stories and deep internal dialogue.

I was not prepared for how much this booked moved me. I had read Normal People and been underwhelmed and had not enjoyed Rooney’s writing style. To be fair, I still find her style slightly irritating, with minimal punctuation, no quotation marks and the sort of sentence structure that would get you a fail in any high school English exam. One reviewer has described her prose as Yoda-like:

“Lifting awkwardly her head she swallows once, and again. Blotchy her face he thinks.”

Fair point.

However, what she does demonstrate brilliantly is her understanding of human nature and the complex nature of human relationships, the imperfections of life plans and the textured reality that is love, life and the pursuit of happiness. The story centres on brothers Peter and Ivan, separated by a sizeable age gap but also by vastly different personalities. The recent death of their father and their strained relationship with their mother brings in the complexities of parent/child love as well as sibling love. Added to this fraught mix are three love interests, two for Peter and one for Ivan.

I suppose you could describe Peter’s story as polyamory and in many reviews, Peter’s character gets a bashing for being selfish and unsympathetic but strangely, I found myself being persuaded by his struggle to make sense of his attachments to two very different women.

Ivan is probably autistic, a chess genius and socially awkward. His burgeoning relationship with a much older married woman was tender and convincing and I found myself feeling really invested in their mutual happiness despite societal and familial pressures against the relationship.

By the second half of the book, I was totally wrapped up in this complex family web, where the characters rage with different layers of grief, anger, frustration and yet finally find love, maturity and more common ground than they imagined. I think Rooney really understands people and how they tick. There is an awful lot of sex in this book, some of it adds to the narrative but honestly, I felt some of it was unnecessary. Cleverly, there is also a dog which (to augment the chess theme) becomes a pawn in the family dynamic.

I think if a book makes you cry several times and see some way to understanding relationships that are totally alien to your own, then the author has done a good job.

Sally Rooney is a master of character development. The people in her books are so carefully constructed with flaws, strengths and quirks they are like real people. In Intermezzo I thought Peter was the strongest character. Though not overly likeable, I understood his justifications for some questionable decision making and found him most nuanced.

However, in this book everyone’s inner thoughts are overly detailed and long passages of repetitive internal dialogue would halt plot progression and my interest. Therefore, this realist and traditionally structured novel left me wanting. Lately I’ve read a lot of books that are inventive in form and structure and I’ve enjoyed reading outside of the box so it was a marked change switching to this style. In saying that, this is the book I would recommend to the widest audience (even though you now can’t buy it in the UK (don’t get me started on banned books)) as I think it is universally appealing. But for me at this stage of my reading, it sits as a mid range literary experience.