Intermezzo by Sally Rooney: Book Review

Pub Date	24 September 2024
Publisher	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page Count	464 pages
Genre	Literary Fiction, Adult, Contemporary
Goodreads Star Rating	4.31
My star rating	4

Intermezzo Book Summary 

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney follows two brothers grieving their father’s death. The older brother, Peter, is popular, has a conventionally successful job, but he’s struggling with pills and alcohol. At the same time, he’s dealing with his confusing feelings for the two women in his life. Ivan, the younger brother, is a chess genius with poor social skills. He meets an older, recently divorced woman at one of his tournaments and begins a relationship with her. Both brothers are struggling in their own ways, and the relationship between them is strained. 

Intermezzo Book Review

Intermezzo was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I’m afraid to say it was — well, something. I didn’t exactly love it, but it isn’t a bad book. For the most part, I felt like I could just put it down and never come back without feeling any regret. 

And while I understand why it’s so well-regarded and respected (and highly rated), I’m also confused — why this particular book? 

In my opinion, Beautiful World, Where Are You was such a beautiful, triumphant example of Sally Rooney’s capabilities as a writer. It took four flawed characters and gave them life. That whole book is why I love reading so much. It’s a love letter to literature. 

I can’t help but wonder why Intermezzo is the first book of hers that people are genuinely respecting. Why is it the first one of hers that has more than four stars on Goodreads? Could it be that people perceive it as better because it centers male characters? That its focus is not on romance, which is traditionally seen as a woman’s interest? 

I’m not sure. Of course, it could genuinely just be better than other Sally Rooney books. After all, I’m just one person and the general public seems to love it. And I’m happy for Rooney, because from her interviews, she really cares about these characters. I’m just — again — confused. 

Intermezzo is, ostensibly, about Peter and Ivan’s relationship with each other. They were close as children, but grew estranged, and their father’s death appears to bring them closer. Of course, you won’t see them interact more than twice within the first 70% of the book, but they do think about each other, not always kindly. 

Peter perceives his younger brother as so socially inept as to be unable to build any sort of relationships outside of chess. He’s condescending and treats Ivan like a child almost. Ivan, on the other hand, is a child when it comes to his brother. He storms out of the restaurant and blocks Peter’s number for slight criticism. 

But the focus of the novel, at least to me, is more on Peter and Ivan as individual characters and their relationships with others, rather than Peter and Ivan as brothers. And don’t believe whoever told you this book has less romance than Rooney’s other books. I’d say it has even more. 

Peter’s life practically revolves around the two women he’s in love with. He just wants to settle down, care for someone and live what he perceives to be a normal life. Ivan is not much better in that sense — when he’s not with Margaret, he’s thinking about her. There are also more sex scenes in this book than in Normal People and Beautiful World combined. 

We begin the book in Peter’s perspective, which was a choice. The way his point of view was written is a stylistic departure for Rooney. It’s choppy, staccato, train of thought, often incoherent. I had to re-read the first few sentences several times to understand them. 

It was jarring at first, but it gets better as you get used to it, and it makes sense for Peter’s character. He’s struggling with mental health, not sleeping, taking pills and drinking a lot. In the moments when he’s at peace or feels better than usual, the writing style in his chapters starts to resemble more of Rooney’s usual. But as soon as he starts spiraling, this reverts back. 

It’s a “why say many word when few word do job” type of writing, very experimental yet reminiscent of Ulysses. For example, one of the sentences I highlighted says “Used to spend a lot of time at their place, his and Sylvia’s, even slept on the couch for a while, when he, when they.” 

Ivan’s chapters, on the other hand, are written in a typical Rooney style, but with more anxious rambling and dissecting every single thought, which works for Ivan’s character. By the end, I enjoyed Peter’s chapters more than Ivan’s, so there’s that. 

I love the care she took with the language itself. Peter and Ivan both occasionally use sentence structures which are not natural to native English speakers, likely inherited from their father who was Slovenian. You wouldn’t see these in Margaret’s point of view, but it’s a common thread for two brothers, as different as they are. 

As you’ve probably gathered, this book is written from three points of view — Peter’s, Ivan’s, and Margaret’s. Each is written in a style that perfectly suits the character, which is just a stunning display of craft. 

Peter is riddled with grief and guilt — towards his father, his brother, and the two women he loves. He feels as if he hasn’t done enough for his dad, and as if he’s deceiving and leading on Sylvia and Naomi, even though both know about each other. All of this weighs heavy on him and prevents him from having a normal life. 

The only times he feels peace is with Naomi and Sylvia, especially when living in or imagining domestic situations with them. The problem is, he can’t decide which one he wants to stay with. 

Sylvia is the love of his life, but she rejects him constantly because her chronic condition prevents her from having intercourse with him (something that’s seemingly very important to Peter), and she doesn’t want him to care for her in her worst moments. There’s a lot of yearning and longing here from Peter’s side. 

Naomi is a young university student who likes to party and have fun. She’s not quite so one-dimensional, however — she had a difficult childhood and still has to mother her own mom. She’s sharp and intelligent, but also sensitive. All she wants is love and security, which Peter provides. He also gives her money, which bothers Peter and doesn’t at different points. 

He has more in common with Sylvia, and feels more at peace with her, yet he feels protective over Naomi and has a strong desire to make her happy. There’s a lot of self-flagellation on his part here, and while it’s understandable, it also gets old, especially since he appears to be the only one who minds. 

Then there’s Ivan, who enters a relationship with a woman more than ten years older than him. This causes her — Margaret — a lot more turmoil than him. All he wants is to be with her. But Margaret is afraid of what other people would think, how her relationship — admittedly not exploitative and relatively pure and sweet — would be perceived by the people she cares about. 

I quite enjoyed the prose, as I normally do with Rooney’s books, but I did miss the descriptions from Beautiful World. Something about them can just bring you to tears, and that is not the case here. 

However, I did like the relationships, the characters, and seeing them develop. A few people have mentioned that they feel like things just happened for Peter in the end, that it was too happy. But I’d argue that all those things (his relationships with Sylvia and Naomi, his brother), were there all along and the end was more about him accepting them. 

Especially since he spends all this time trying so hard to fit into this image of himself that he has built. The same is true for Margaret. Ivan’s growth is the least clear to me, and I liked him the least out of all the characters in this book. 

Peter and Margaret, I could heavily relate to. With Peter, the way he was with his father and Ivan, always the protector, never the protected (oldest children, I guess). It could be that they’re closer to my age than Ivan, which is likely why I found Ivan childish and annoying. 

I especially enjoyed the last 30%, when all five key characters were converging. I wish this was the whole book, or at least that they all interacted more. This part made me tear up — the love, the grief, the understanding. 

So, as you can see, my feelings on Intermezzo are very mixed, even a week after I finished it. Would I recommend reading it? Yes, definitely. Most people absolutely love it, and I believe it’s well worth reading. I hope you enjoy!