This Week, I'm Reading...

Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney

I’m having a great reading year. First Orbital, then North Woods, and now Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo. Some of you told me earlier that you liked it better than Normal People, which I may read as a follow-up. Intermezzo is the kind of book we don’t get enough of anymore—leisurely in pace and deeply insightful, with sentences that are beautifully written without calling attention to themselves. I never get jerked out of the prose by a cliché or a clunker. Sally Rooney is good. I’m about halfway through this novel about two brothers, one in his early 20s, the other in his mid-30s. The elder is more overtly successful and sees the younger as hapless, but Rooney’s genius allows us to see that the opposite is actually true. At least, that’s what I’m taking away so far from this intimate peek into the life of one family. We bought this book at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, about which more on Sunday, so it’s a European edition. The paper quality is way better than we’re getting these days in American paperbacks (I addressed this disappointment in 2023), and the cover blurbs all come from European media. The Observer calls Intermezzo “a tender, funny page-turner,” and the Irish Times says, “Come for the romance; stay for the meaning of life.”

What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comment section below!