elle's Reviews > Intermezzo

"what if life is just a collection of essentially unrelated experiences? why does one thing have to follow meaningfully from another?"

rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

i am still processing this book after a month, so please bear with me. i will have a full review up on my substack (https://postcardsbyelle.substack.com/) in a week or so. i am so so grateful i had the privilege of reading this as an advanced copy…the dream of a lifetime.

sally rooney is my favorite author, and one of the reasons why i love her is that she is able to inspect any relationship—romantic or platonic—at a microscopic level. she takes mundane moments, day in and day out, and creates a bigger picture that is worthy of reading; when you are finished, it will imperceptibly but surely change the way you view the world.

intermezzo felt reminiscent of beautiful world where are you, with the way two characters' alternating perspectives diverged and mirrored the way they felt about life and each other.

the heart of intermezzo is about two brothers—peter and ivan. peter, the older brother, is a successful lawyer, and ivan, the younger brother, a competitive chess player. grief for their father pervades them, mourning him looms over them like a shadow, and thus causes them to question both how they have spent their lives and the future. they grieve alone, mostly, unable to be vulnerable to each other for a large portion of the book.

what happens when you finally look in the mirror after something life changing, and the reflection that you see is unrecognizable? how do you come back from that? how do you approach intimacy and vulnerability when those feelings are completely foreign to you? how do you reconcile with and concede to love and human connection?

while peter and ivan both have complicated relationships of their own, much of the book is bereft of the romantic aspect that is often present in her other books. instead, rooney takes the time and care to vigilantly flesh out the two brothers’ personalities, and by extension their strained relationship. both brothers have distinctly unlikeable traits of their own, but she never lets go of the authorial kindness and grace she offers to her characters.

in a book that is, at its core, about love and grief and regrets, i think that is the most wonderful thing she could have done.

thank you so much to fsg for the arc! you truly made my year

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mini review

i put off reading the last ten pages for as long as i could because i knew how absolutely empty i'd feel after i finished it. i took two months reading this—a chapter every few days with emma—and it was the best decision ever. it made me appreciate rooney's words so much more, and this book is one that should be read slowly and analytically.

i'll post another review soon, but all i have to say is: be excited!!!!! this lives up to every expectation ever.


i'm literally buddy reading a sally rooney ARC with my best girl emma??? this is what our dreams are made of

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brothers??? one is a loner??? one is in love with two women??? grief?? despair??
welcome back dostoyevsky