FICTION

Intermezzo

Farrar. Sept. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780374602635. $29. F
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Rooney (Beautiful World, Where Are You) once again delivers her signature spin on literary fiction with another story of beautiful eccentrics making connections that are flawed and fraught, yet luminous. Her latest novel will appeal to readers of her previous books and viewers of the TV adaptation of Normal People, with its striking moments of quiet passion, inner struggles, and small but life-altering moments. This novel is about brothers Peter, a thirtysomething lawyer, and Ivan, a 22-year-old competitive chess player. Their father has died, and they are grieving him in different ways. Peter chooses to self-medicate, while Ivan, usually a loner, meets an older woman during the early weeks of his mourning period, and their lives quickly intertwine.
VERDICT Rooney’s at her best between the acts, as in the intermezzo moments or pauses between bold movements. Readers will find themselves tearfully applauding for the small victories, the little defeats, and the silences between characters in this lovely story of complicated people finding, and often losing, each other in times of pain.
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