Mini Reviews: Normal People by Sally Rooney and Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
4.5 *****
Wow, this was not an easy book to read, but I won't be quick to forget it either. Sheff tells a moving, though deeply unsettling account of his son's drug addiction, how he as a father coped with it, and how it affected his family. I'll need a while to really digest Beautiful Boy, but I do want to read the son's account, Tweak by Nic Sheff, to try to understand the experience from his view. The point Sheff got across was just how hard it is to help someone with addiction, how draining it is on every level to watch someone you love more than anything descend gain and again into the darkest places and to feel your hopes rise and then die again and again as well. I felt such deep sympathy with both the father and the son, all the while being so frustrated by Nic's perpetual relapses. But it just shows that even people with loving families are not exempt from drug addiction. I'll be thinking about this book for some time to come, I'm sure, and would definitely recommend it.
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4****
Though it took me a long time to read, I do understand what the hype is about. Normal People essentially provides what the title would suggest, and yet, in this deep observation of two people Rooney manages to capture something of what it means to grow up, what it means to feel untethered and in love and lost and much more. Her style is astute and thoughtful, but never descends into dramatics for effect. This is not a gripping book, at least it wasn't for me, but it was a book that I don't think I'll forget very soon. The characters felt real and I felt for them in they vulnerability and cringed for them when I saw them sabotaging themselves. I'll definitely give Rooney's other book a try as well.
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