讀完了Sally Rooney的《Normal People》
去年讀了她的第一本小說《Conversation with Friends》，今年來讀第二本！XD
讀嘛讀嘛

故事圍繞著兩位青少年Connell跟Marianne。他們在愛爾蘭西邊的小鎮長大，家境良好的Marianne在班上受到排擠，勞動階級的Connell則屬於受歡迎的那一群。但當他們兩人在學校外相遇，兩人的生活交錯，並開始互相影響。

在進入大學，開始找尋自我的路途上，Connell跟Marianne發現他們的路途總有交會之處——即使這條路歪斜扭曲，兩人有時候走得近，有時候又分開。就連他們也不知道該如何定義他們的「友誼」，但可以肯定的是，他們似乎離不開彼此。

Sally Rooney的風格很特別，寫的是現代人常有的焦慮感，有時候明明是些小事，但當局者迷，會為了一個動作、一句話而糾結許久。作者厲害的地方就是，明明沒有發生什麼太大的事件，讀起來就是很尖銳、很戲劇化XDD （就這點來說，我想這本書很貼近「真實生活」。）

書中有兩個ＰＯＶ，分別是Connell跟Marianne的。從不同視角看同一個事件，可以發現人與人之間的溝通容易出現誤解，猜測對方心思也容易出錯。有時候，甚至只要一句話沒有表達清楚，立場不夠堅定，就會與對方失之交臂。也因此，這本書充滿著憂慮與苦惱（以同人文的用語來說就是Angst、Frustration跟Unresolved Sexual Tension XDD），讀的時候常常想去搖醒主角們，跟他們說：「你們只要多説點話就好了啊！！！拜託！！！」

這本書不只講友誼、愛情，也講階級。書中的階級並不單止社經階級，還有同儕間受歡迎的程度，和兩人情感上的階級差異——Connell與母親的關係良好，Marianne則是在家裡受到冷落，甚至受到暴力的對待。兩位主角即便心意相通，但成長背景的不同，使他們不僅在生活、思考方式上有所差異，對彼此的困境與需求也並不了解，導致他們在「理解對方」上總是存在一點障礙。

當然，這點或許也跟社會的風氣有關，階級存在，但很少人談論。階級就像隱形的線，無形中將人隔開。

但是，階級也是流動的：Connell能藉由教育與才華提昇階級，而一直以來在情緒上較為穩定的他，也有需要Marianne支持的時候。

作者Sally Rooney曾自陳是馬克思主義者，我覺得主角們也有點在施行馬可斯主義那種「財富共享」——只是財富並不只是金錢，也有可能是情感。書中他們便是在一次與一次的嘗試中，試圖理解對方，將自己擁有的與對方分享，並學著接受對方所給的東西，互相依賴。

書名《Normal People》也很有趣——什麼樣是正常人呢？什麼樣又是正常人的愛情呢？無論是《Conversation with Friends》還是這一本，我覺得Sally Rooney都在創造新的愛情的樣貌w

===以下摘句！===

Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was and become part of it. She had that feeling in school often, but it wasn't accompanied by any specific images of what the real life might look or feel like.

All she knew was that when it started, she wouldn't need to imagine it anymore.(P. 11)

They are not stupid people, but they're not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he'll probably never really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try. (P. 68)

He knows that a lot of the literary people in college see books primarily as a way of appearing cultured. [...]

It was culture as a class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.

Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing.(P. 221)

You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget. (P. 226)

How strange to feel herself so completely under the control of another person, but also how ordinary. No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not. (P. 262)

＝＝＝＝＝＝

對了，這本要被改編成影集了！選角還挺適合的～不過我讀書的時候，腦補的Connell是Timothée Chalamet，Marianne則是Saoirse Ronan XD

Exclusive First Look: Sally Rooney’s Normal People T...

總體來說，比起《Conversation with Friends》，我更愛《Normal People》。Connell跟Marianne的雙視角讓故事更完整一點。《Conversation with Friends》只有女主視角，偏偏女主沒有很得我心XD