Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is a noteworthy piece of fiction. If you liked Rooney’s Normal People, you’ll enjoy being drawn into this newest book. The narrative line is: two brothers, both grieving the recent death of their father, are alienated from each other and, we learn, from themselves. Peter, age 32, is a barrister known for his successful defense work. There are two women in his life, one his own age and another, a university student. His two women know about each other. Peter’s younger brother Ivan, 22, a brilliant chess champion with a degree in theoretical physics who still has braces on his teeth, has limited social skills but falls in love with Margaret, 36. She runs a cultural center and is separated from her alcoholic husband.

Intermezzo raises all sorts of questions about love and loss: how to understand the mix of love and hate in parent-child relationships; what are the heights and depths of romantic and platonic love; what is an “appropriate relationship” according to societal norms; how do seemingly “inappropriate” relationships meet a person’s legitimate needs and have an authenticity all their own; how to differentiate the physical and emotional components of a sustainable relationship.  An intermezzo is an interlude.  Can the relationships of a particular time in one’s life be lasting? Do they evolve from one kind of love to another?

Rooney’s style, as it was in Normal People, is to alternate among the views of the key characters. Intermezzo is a very interior novel, told in a stream-of-consciousness style, often reminiscent of another Irish writer, James Joyce. And, like Joyce, Rooney’s newest novel is laced with literary allusions, which she credits in notes at the end.  Unlike Joyce, however, Rooney is more subtle in her references, and they in no way impede the flow of the narrative.  As with Normal People, we see characters growing in deep intuition, struggling with painful miscommunication with each other, grappling with lack of self- esteem, alienation, and depression. With all this, the reader is left with tenderness for the characters, a sense of the life-affirming qualities of love and a feeling of optimism, however precarious. Intermezzo is both sophisticated and accessible, and I can recommend it without qualification.

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