Intermezzo

I’ve been waiting for a Rooney book for two years now. In short, I would literally die for Ivan. Can we talk about Peter’s stream of consciousness (such an interesting writing form but I kind of liked it / felt like I was genuinely in his head)?! I was intrigued to see how she would write a brothers dual POV story, but holy Sally could never stop surprising me.

One thing that Sally NEVER fails at is understanding people and writing the most REAL feelings. This story is about two brothers who are grieving their dad who’s just passed after a long, grueling battle of cancer. She captures grief in two different perspectives with Ivan and Peter — and again like I can’t express how does the woman just understand every emotion that’s humanly possible and spit it out on paper in the most relatable and engrossing way. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED. My heart to all of the women in this novel - Sylvia, Naomi, and Margaret. And the IMAGERY. She accomplishes so much in just a stream of four word sentences.

Of course I’m biased to Rooney, but I don’t even think I need to explain myself on that regard. She’s a literary genius.

5⭐️