Book Review: "Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney's novels tended to be a hit and miss for me. Normal People was the first book I'd read by her which, admittedly, completely put me off all of her writing and I hadn't bothered to read more until recently. I don't know what made me give her another go, but Beautiful World, Where Are You? was fantastic and Conversations with Friends wasn't too bad either. I was beginning to enjoy my traversing into the Rooney-verse with all of its inspiration very clearly taken from Woolfian writing (though, I would happily change that adjective to describe Virginia Woolf's influence to 'Woolfish' given half a chance). Intermezzo was perhaps one of the most anticipated books of the last few years and unfortunately, there are a few things I need to grapple with.

First of all, we have the storyline of two very different brothers, who seem to both be depicted as deeply flawed and massively unlikeable, and their father has passed away. On the one hand, we have Peter - he's a lawyer but he doesn't speak like one. He's also a shallow character, which doesn't make a lot of sense given the fact that he is a lawyer. We then have Ivan (I know - strange name - but there's a Dostoevskian influence in this book that the reader simply cannot ignore). Ivan is clearly inspired by Ivan from The Brothers Karamazov, a somewhat cynical and detached but smart figure who spends a lot of time reading. Be that as it may, he is a little bit more likeable than Peter even though Ivan still isn't wholly likeable at all. He's a chess prodigy though which, in the grand scheme of things, makes him more interesting than his yawn-fest of a brother.

I think the main gripe I had with this book was that the main characters are so unlikeable that it makes the book difficult to plod through. It definitely feels more like a chore to read about two people you have no connection with. Do I find it more difficult to connect with male characters than female ones? No, so let's not start that argument. I find it difficult to connect with male protagonists who are whiny and discontented when they are part of the most privileged members of society - which is basically what these two brothers are in the book. It makes for a bad reading experience and I'm surprised at Sally Rooney for choosing such a weird angle to come at the story on. I don't particularly care that these two men are grieving, you haven't given me a reason to care about them. That's not my fault. That's bad writing.

Another problem with the book is that there are so many badly written romantic scenes which lead to sexual encounters that I became more and more bored as the book went on. I felt that definitely by chapter 5, there was no use continuing but I had hope for the book getting better. I dare say it, this book might be worse than Normal People. As Ivan gets with Margaret (yes, you can tell what privilege really is when 'Margaret' goes by 'Margaret' and not 'Maggie' or 'Mags') and Peter gets with Naomi (which is weird when you read it and might induce feelings of sickness) and also with Sylvia (which you cannot imagine why the only likeable character in the book would like this male embodiment of a turd) - there are just several pages of sex. Honestly, one of the scenes is three pages long and it's just awful. I hate romance in books at the best of times because it adds practically nothing to the story - but when the men are unlikeable rats it makes it even worse.

As you can probably tell, I could not love this book. I read the whole thing in the optimism that it would get better but it didn't. Intermezzo has probably been the biggest disappointment in a reading experience I have had this year and the fact that I was just starting to like Sally Rooney's works makes it even worse. I won't tell you to avoid it, but it is definitely a bore-fest and has absolutely no saving graces. Sorry guys.