The Irish novelist, a global phenomenon, portrays two brothers.
Two brothers and a funeral. Peter and Ivan Koubek have just lost their father. He died of cancer at the age of sixty-five, after a five-year battle with the disease. The two sons thought, wrongly, that they were ready to face his disappearance. Their lives will never be the same again. Both live in Dublin. The eldest, Peter Koubek, is a thirty-two-year-old lawyer. He sinks into depression and is divided between two mistresses: a professor whose body is bruised since a road accident (Sylvia) and a broke and sassy twenty-three-year-old student (Naomi). The youngest, Ivan Koubek, is a twenty-two-year-old chess player. He struggled to make ends meet and fell in love with a married woman older than him: Margaret, thirty-six years old, worked in an arts center in County Leitrim. Irish novelist Sally Rooney, born in 1991, tells how life pulses between the cracks and craters of everyday life.
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A year in the life of two brothers, devastated by the death of their father. They are the opposite of each other. Everyone reacts in their own way. The eldest: alcoholic, suicidal, financially and socially well off, feminist, experiences vertigo in the face of emptiness. The youngest: antisocial, braces on his teeth and bitten nails, insecure, environmentalist, clings to a love. We don’t know if they will succeed in uniting in mourning. “Intermezzo” is the fourth novel by the star of Anglo-Saxon letters. Precise and cold style. Meaning of the dialogues. Sociological and psychological thoroughness. The author of the global success “Normal People” (L’Olivier, 2021), adapted into a television series, has become a literary phenomenon through her talent and her sales. Its themes remain the same: polyamory, patriarchy, feminism, class struggle, entry into working life, fragility. Sally Rooney excels in mirrored relationships, erotic scenes, and power issues.
Eros and Thanatos
She is often presented as an activist writer. Voice of millennials, support for the Palestinian cause, Marxist commitment as a standard. In “Intermezzo”, the novelist questions the norm. Can you sincerely love two women at the same time? Is it normal to not be able to get over the death of a parent? Do we have the right to believe in the strength of a couple with a significant age difference? The five protagonists of “Intermezzo”, two men and three women, are in search of a good life. “And is there ever reasoned reasoning in matters of love, marriage, intimate life?” Sally Rooney alternates between different points of view. They will argue, separate, come together around a vision of the couple mixing, in turn, conformism, conviction, behavior.
The author of “Conversations between friends” (L’Olivier, 2019) and “Ou es-tu, monde admirable” (Olivier, 2022) knows how to create poetic paintings. They tear apart a dark atmosphere with their beauty. A couple bathes in the sea. Scene made up of deserted beach, gigantic cliffs, icy water. “Intermezzo” suffers from an unconvincing ending. All is not well that ends well. But the writer knows how to analyze, with finesse, the struggle between Eros and Thanatos. Death drives versus life drives. Peter Koubek vs. Ivan Koubek. Sorrows, joys, arguments weave the very fabric of life. Everything is balance in imbalance. “Judgment, disapproval, disappointment, conflict are all ways of staying in touch.” Each time, Sally Rooney focuses on the strength of the bonds: in the same sharp noise, the chains hinder and liberate.
« Intermezzo », de Sally Rooney, éd. Gallimard, 460 pages, 22 euros.
© Gallimard
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