"This was a good one! For a while I thought I had the Inmate all figured out and was feeling like a total literature snob…then BOOM, some huge twists and turns tha I didn’t see coming!

To be sure there are some major departures of reality regarding the Criminal Justice system, and how criminal investigations work in general (at points engendering a bit of an eye-roll), but it was needed to make the plot click together. In total this book made for an enjoyable and entertaining read."

"It's about time women get equality as villains. This book was thoroughly absorbing and I learned a lot, but mostly this: it occurs to me that maybe people become white supremacists because they are dumb? I am being serious here. I have read a lot of these books and when you hear how these white supremacist "reasoned" their way into white supremacy, it just seems like they don't have really great critical reasoning skills? I mean, imagine how much of world history you have to ignore to think that the vikings were the inventors of civilization? Or how ignorant you have to be of human genetic biology, or any philosophy, or econ, or theory, or history to believe in some of this stuff?"

"This was my first novel by Sally Rooney, and I loved it.

Unwittingly, I prepared myself well for Intermezzo by first launching into James Joyce's Ulysses, which I had never read before. (Yes, I know. Shame on me, and an English teacher, too!) It was immediately striking how much Joyce's narrative techniques had affected Rooney's own writing (and of course, many other writers inside and outside Ireland). It's clear Rooney is well-versed in the literary traditions from which she draws, and to which she contributes beautifully. Without having first read Joyce, though, I might have had trouble wading into the chapters told from Peter's perspective, which are Joycean in their stream of consciousness use of voice, the density of their paragraphs, and their paucity of punctuation. Once you get used to the style, the story flows quite easily, but if you are used to breezy narratives with lots of line breaks and straightforward prose, this may take a bit of effort to adjust to. The payoff is more than worth it.

The story alternates between two brothers, Peter and Ivan, who could not be more different, and yet whose life-journeys mirror one another and conflict with one another as only siblings' lives can. Peter is a lawyer, outwardly successful, inwardly damaged by his relationship with the love of his life (SPOILER) who can no longer be physically intimate because of constant pain following a car accident. Peter finds himself in a new relationship with a much younger woman -- a relationship that may or may not be contractual -- but which seems impossible to reconcile with his feelings for his old lover. The death of Peter's father, the last thing that tied him and his brother together, threatens to send Peter over the edge of despair.

Meanwhile, younger brother Ivan, a struggling chess player, becomes inadvertently involved with an older woman. Is it love? Is it just for fun? Is it possible to have a true equal romantic partnership with someone when there is more than a decade between you? These are the questions Rooney explores as we follow Ivan and Peter through their trauma, grief, mutual resentment, and romantic entanglements. I was deeply affected by the characters' struggles. There are no easy heroes and villains here, just people struggling along as best they can, trying to make something out of imperfect lives. There is beautiful prose, steamy romance, lovely character building, and a sense of realness to the plot that made me care. In short, a stunning novel that I'm glad I read. I will be on the lookout for more from Rooney!

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