Normal People x Hulu.
@pestokelsey
Back in March of 2019, Kelsey left a musing book review on ‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney. About a year later, Hulu has released a TV adaptation of the book and Kelsey is back to share her thoughts! If you’re interested in reading her previous review, click here!
Never before have I seen an adaptation do a book so much justice. Normal People is a novel with enough quick dialogue it was ready to be turned into a script. Even so, Sally Rooney and Alice Birch did such an incredible job bringing the inner thoughts and turmoils of Marianne and Connell to a new type of page that Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal could read and bring to life completely.
One scene in the book (page 171, pictured above) I hoped would make it to screen was this particular one. It's one of the most ridiculous moments and says so much about each character and their lives. I love many aspects of this book (as you've all seen me post about it since the day I got it in the mail two years ago) but Sally Rooney's commentary on classism, and the complete disconnect with the world outside of elite universities, is delightful.
The adaptation reinforces it with how they lay out a conversation -in a beautiful foreign country's piazza- between Marianne and Connell. It's a conversation about who gets the right to actually go to universities and explore the world and who doesn't. A conversation between an intelligent, wealthy woman- whose acceptance of a scholarship is simply for status- and an intelligent man who actually needs the scholarship to continue going to school. The scene that immediately follows, is an argument, which on the surface, revolves around champagne glasses. We love to see the harsh dichotomies.
Even though it's a book I can talk about for ages, Normal People has drawbacks and can be criticized rightfully by audiences. It is a very white, very heterosexual, and very privileged story. The privilege plays into the plot and character dynamics of course, but there can be a disconnect with audiences. With that said, it is one of the most realistic takes on the miscommunication in modern romance and what the adaptation does with it shows just how much they cared about not glossing over any of the tough, ugly bits of love and loss.