#BookReview of #Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

‘Intermezzo is a story of brothers and lovers, of familial and romantic intimacies, of relationships that don’t quite fit the conventional structures’
Alex Bowler, Publisher (Faber)

[ About Intermezzo ]

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women – his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair and possibility – a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

[ My Review ]

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (September 2024) is published by Faber Books and is possibly one of the most highly anticipated novels of 2024. Sally Rooney achieved huge recognition following the phenomenal success of the BBC TV adaptation of Normal People, featuring Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal, a feat that doesn’t seem to sit comfortably with Sally Rooney. A writer first and foremost, Sally Rooney doesn’t look for the spotlight yet it seems to find her. Sally Rooney’s writing is extremely contemporary and her appeal seems to cross boundaries and gender, with novels that feature flawed human characters with complex emotional issues.

Intermezzo is a chess term. As I don’t play chess I had to do a little investigation which took me to the website www.chess.com. Here I learned that Intermezzo is the Italian term for Zwischenzug which in English means the in-between move. It is defined as ‘an unexpected move that poses a severe threat and forces an immediate response‘. Using this analogy, Sally Rooney introduces us to the Koubek brothers, Peter and Ivan. Following the recent death of their father, both are dealing with their grief differently, with both finding it a struggle to cope with the day-to-day of living. There is a significant age-gap between the two with Peter, a successful lawyer, in his early thirties and Ivan, fresh out of college, at just twenty-two. Ivan would be characterised as someone who is an introverted chess genius, calm at the chess table but awkward when faced with human interaction.

Peter was a source of protection for Ivan in his younger years, but a traumatic event in Peter’s life changed their relationship. In recent years their father had been there to break the tension between them but now with him gone Peter and Ivan are in freefall. Peter has two women in his life, Sylvia and Naomi. Both offer him something very different but Peter is confused. He is fully aware that he is not functioning well as a person. His consumption of alcohol and drugs are causing him sleepless nights and border-line panic attacks. Peter is a mess but he refuses to acknowledge how far he has fallen.

Ivan had to take his foot off the pedal in terms of his chess career with his father’s illness all-consuming. Now, following his death, Ivan feels the need to re-invigorate his passion for chess and, on a trip to a chess club in Leitrim, he unexpectedly meets Margaret, an older lady in her late thirties. Unexpectedly smitten, both are conscious of the age gap. They keep their relationship on a very low key but their feelings for each other are real, leaving them with serious choices to make.

I did struggle a small bit with Margaret’s character. Their developing relationship was beautiful but, at times, I sensed more of a parent/child dynamic, which was a little odd. Was this a deliberate move by Sally Rooney? Ivan clearly craves a female companion but in what role? My other wee issue was that I found it a bit too long. Complex characters with emotional insecurities can be fascinating to read about but I admittedly lost my way on occasion and, dare I say, skimmed over a few pages.

Sally Rooney’s style of writing has drawn both criticism and praise over the years. Her lack of traditional speech marks creates an unusual fluidity within her prose but what I found really interesting in Intermezzo was how the writing style changed according to the character. When she writes about Peter it is in a staccato style highlighting the anxiety that he is registering. Short fast sentences. Mixed up thoughts. Confusion. Disarray and panic. It’s jumpy. It’s heightened. It’s a very intelligent tool conveying Peter’s state of mind. With Ivan, there is more of a relaxed flow. It’s easier to read these chapters as they emanate a sense of calm and peace. Ivan and Margaret’s relationship is filled with touching moments, gentle actions and the style accompanying these chapters is easy and more relatable. The juxtaposition of these two styles could be jarring, but it’s not.

While I didn’t have the same reaction to it as I had to Normal People, Intermezzo is a very-well crafted and thought-provoking novel. It is an intellectual read that explores many relevant themes, including bereavement, relationships and family. Intermezzo is a complex and multi-layered story, and most definitely will be another guaranteed hit for Sally Rooney.

** Thank you to Faber Books for an advance copy of Intermezzo in return for my honest review

[ Bio ]

Sally Rooney is the author of the novels Conversations with Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You. All three of her novels have been international bestsellers, and her work is translated into over forty languages. Her first two novels have been adapted as television series for the BBC. In 2022, TIME magazine named her among the 100 most influential people in global culture. She lives and works in County Mayo, Ireland, where she was born.