Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024--San Antonio

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney has received great reviews which refer to it as an almost perfect novel and has been listed by many sources as a top book of 2024.  I had to wait weeks to get it online via the Libby app.  The story, set in Dublin and surrounding communities in modern times, centers around two young brothers--one 32 and the other 22--and those adjacent to them.  It is built around the push of society to make everyone conform to conventions.  The father and the mother of both boys separated when eldest was a teenager and the other was quite young.  The mother left the boys with the father.  Because of that, the elder son felt as if he was mostly responsible for his young brother.  Neither liked spending much time with their mother because she was raising step-kids in her new marriage who were favored over her own kids.  Peter is the elder son.  He is a lawyer who also teaches law at the university.  He is considered to be charming and outgoing by most people.  He was in a very serious relationship with Sylvia in his college days to the point that she came to be accepted as a member of the family--loved by all.  But Sylvia was in a very bad accident which resulted in injuries, never detailed, that made it impossible for her to have penetrative sex.  Although they loved each other, she ended the the old relationship with Peter.  However, it has continued as a very close friendship in which they love each other.  Peter has never been able to mentally accept the loss of the old relationship with Sylvia who remains the love of his life.  He has moved on to have sexual relationships with others and has developed a continuing one recently with Naomi, a 22-year-old student who lives as a squatter with other students in an abandoned building and has a side gig of having sex for money with others--both online via a website such as Only Fans and in person.  Peter has become a long-time partner (but not exclusively), and he also "pays" her by giving her money to buy things she desires or when she comes up short (which is frequently) in terms of being able to pay her bills.  Peter has kept Naomi a secret from his family and friends.  The younger brother Ivan is a chess prodigy and somewhat of the stereotypical classic nerd--wanting to meet girls and have sex, but always being awkward in doing so to the point that he has not yet had a relationship at 22.  The father has died just before the time of opening of the story, and both sons are finding it difficult to handle life.  Their age difference keeps them from being close and causes them to have conflicts.  Ivan has been floundering and dropping in his ranking as a chess player.  He doesn't have a full-time job and has no interest in one.  Instead, he uses his IT educational background and innate ability to analyze that has made him a chess prodigy to do short-term contracting jobs analyzing the data collected by IT companies to make sense to their administrators of what data patterns exist and what they mean.  He is happy to wear only second-hand clothing and work only to pay his month-to-month expenses (which are few).  In the beginning of the story, he has gone to a regional cultural center to make money by playing all the members of the local chess club--10-12 games going on at once.  Margaret, the 35-year-old director of the center who has booked this event for center and is married but separated from her alcoholic husband, is scheduled to give him a ride to his hotel after the evening event.  Ivan is lonely and desperate for company and somehow manages to ask if she wants to come up to his room.  That sets up the last conflict with societal expectations.  The mother has abandoned her family leaving the boys with their father.  Peter is still in love with Syliva and sees her regularly while maintaining a daily affair with a woman who is essentially a part-time prostitute and much younger than he is.  Ivan finally has a girlfriend, but she is 13 years older than he is, is still married but separated from her husband who everyone in their town likes, and Margaret and Peter (who is the only one who knows about Margaret and reacted badly when he heard) are both concerned about the age difference between Ivan and Margaret.  No one seems to show much concern about the similar age difference between Peter and Noami.  Both relationships are secret--one because of the age difference and the other because of the side work done by the young female.  All of this creates tensions, causes fights, and requires that the characters make decisions regarding their lives.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.