Books to Read After “Normal People”
Oh, Sally Rooney, whatever is psychologically wrong with you is wrong with us all. There is something raw and uncomfortable about the love stories Sally Rooney tells that makes them addictive. Her heroines tend towards the chilly, aloof, and abstract—maybe we wish we could all play it that close to the vest—but I love seeing romantic love treated within the greater intellectual framework that kind of distance enables. For me, the following books are all addictively readable and electrifying in that same way, honest about things that make us nervous, painful, and fun at the same time. If you’re looking for books like Normal People, pick up one of these.
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Add to BookshelfThe Idiot
by Elif Batuman
The premise of this book could be summarized as: Freshman at Harvard falls for upperclassman and spends a summer in Europe. Such a summary would give you the entirely wrong impression of what this book is about, even though technically all of those things happen. This is a book about not understanding. Have you ever felt like no matter what you say or how you say it no one understands you? All those places where love and language fail to bridge the distance between us—Batuman’s heroine, Selin, feels like she has fallen off the bridge and fallen in love at the same time. If you think philosophy and linguistics are interesting, this book is for you. But even if you don’t already self-identify as loving those things, this one is worth a read, if only for some of the descriptions: “a slab of chocolate cake the size of a child’s tombstone.” Or my personal favorite: “A heap of thermal long underwear resembled a pile of souls torn from their bodies. Women were clawing through the piled souls, periodically holding one up in the air so it hung there all limp and abandoned.”
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Astonish Me
by Maggie Shipstead
I feel like this book never got the attention it deserved—if you think it is going to be a sweet ballet book about sheltered bunheads, you are very wrong. Shipstead presents her dancers as athletes, ruthless, powerful, arrogant, and unashamed. There is a lot of very interesting sex and a lot of very complicated emotions. Shipstead’s concerns are existential in the BEST way: “Her throat is tight with fear. She is afraid of how this man, this stranger, has already changed the sensation of being alive. She is afraid he will slip away.” We are all afraid we aren’t good enough, but Shipstead’s heroine Joan knows she isn’t good enough. Her lover is one of the greatest dancers in the world, and she is not. What is to be done? What is the value of love (or art) if it also destroys you? It’s a gorgeous, highly readable, and thoughtful book.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Learning Curve
by Mandy Berman
I liked Mandy Berman’s debut, Perennials, which is a delicious take on summer camp (nostalgia, love, moral ambiguity), but I think I love The Learning Curve more. A love triangle between two undergrads and a charismatic visiting professor, Berman’s book is just as much about the mechanics of power as it is about love.
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$27.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Woman No. 17
by Edan Lepucki
Woman No. 17 is as uncomfortable as Normal People, but not as restrained and chilly. Lepucki is instead unpredictable, odd, and deeply funny, in this story about a divorced couple, a live-in nanny, and, of course, an affair. In some ways, Woman No. 17 is the most disturbing book on this list, in part because the characters and the reality of the book itself seem subtly distorted like they are being reflected on the ripples of a pool. A book about art making as much as about suburban life, Woman No. 17 vibrates with a peculiar chaotic energy that reminds me of Didion. In the very first scene, the mother Lady is interviewing S for the nanny position. “We were steps from the pool and I imagined pushing S into the deep end. Her horrible dress would bunch around her waist and I’d see her blurry cream-cheese-white thighs.” This flight of imagination is not explained because there is no way to explain it. Sometimes you just briefly imagine pushing someone into a pool. And sometimes you do something much worse. As an added bonus, Lepucki writes great sex scenes.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Topics of Conversation
by Miranda Popkey
Topics of Conversation is a collection of conversations that span twenty years in the narrator’s life, discussions mostly about love and desire, and power. While it lacks the propulsive will-they-won’t-they of a romance plot, Topics of Conversation is still a contender for the most complete one-to-one match in terms of Rooney-ishness. Popkey’s prose is detached and she and Rooney share an instinct to suss out vulnerability and then slice it into thin layers so we can see exactly what it’s made of.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Very Nice
by Marcy Dermansky
As compulsively readable as Normal People, Very Nice is ultimately much more lighthearted: an undergrad, the professor she is having an affair with, and her mother all living together in a fancy house. What could go wrong? This book has everything: standard poodles, lesbians, literary agents, a playboy actor, politics, and a ton of sex scenes all in a Rooney-esque clipped style. This is how the book opens: “I didn’t think, the day I kissed my professor, that he would kiss me back. His lips were soft. He tasted like coffee. The coffee I had made for him. ‘That was very nice,’ he said.”
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Normal People: The Scripts
by Sally Rooney
If you’re looking to immerse yourself more in the cinematic adaptation of Normal People (actors Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal make the series incredibly rewatchable), check out the complete screenplays of the acclaimed Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated television drama, which includes an introduction by director Lenny Abrahamson and behind-the-scenes iconic images from the show.
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$30.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Knockout Queen
by Rufi Thorpe
My latest novel centers on a haphazard heroine and a dynamic friendship. By the end of high school, Bunny Lampert is 6’3 with the abs of a ninja turtle and the face of a boy angel. Her dad has chaotic salesman energy and her mom is dead. But from the outside, Bunny seems to have it all—she’s blonde, rich, and an Olympic volleyball hopeful. Michael—who has a ponytail and a septum piercing, works at Rite-Aid, and has a secret Grindr—lives with his aunt in the cramped cottage next door to Bunny’s McMansion. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. Their friendship is as improbable as it is irresistible, but when Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny’s futures. It’s a darkly comic book about doing things you didn’t mean to do, wanting things you wish you didn’t want, and loving people you can’t afford to love.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
