I know this one is cheating a bit because Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel was turned into a tv series rather than a movie, but I couldn’t help but talk about it because everyone else is right now. Rooney tells the story of Marianne and Connell as they grown from teenagers to young adults whilst weaving in and out of each other’s life.
Normal People producer Ed Guiney told BBC: “What is also interesting is that all of the book adaptations we have done at Element, Normal People remains closest to the novel. There are virtually no ideas or scenes in the series that aren’t in the novel, and we were always reacting to what Sally had written, which is a testament to its quality and depth.”. This is mostly true, but there are some tweaks/minor changes that the series makes to the novel’s story. This is arguably necessary as much of the “action” of the book takes place inside of Marianne and Connell’s heads—we follow their thoughts and feelings as closely as their words and external actions. This is obviously much harder to represent on screen, so some of the thoughts and feelings that take place inside of Marianne and Connell’s heads in the book are made external through dialogue or more explicit emotional reaction.
For example, in the book, Marianne goes to see Connell play football and thinks to herself about it: “It occurred to Marianne how much she wanted to see him having sex with someone; it didn’t have to be her, it could be anybody. It would be beautiful just to watch him. She knew these were the kind of thoughts that made her different from other people in school, and weirder.”. In the TV series, these thoughts become dialogue that Marianne expresses to Connell while they are in bed together, saying: “You know when I was watching you play football, you looked so beautiful, I kept thinking how much I wanted to watch you have sex, I mean, not even with me, with anybody, how good it would feel. Is that really weird?”. Connell responds to this saying: “Yeah, that’s really weird, Marianne, but I think I understand it.”. This may seem like a minor change, but for a story that is so much about Marianne and Connell’s inability to express their honest feelings for one another, it is also relatively monumental.
One of the main running motifs in the novel is the class divide between the two main characters. Throughout the series it is emphasised that Connell is the good-looking popular guy at their school and Marianne is an intellectual wallflower with little to no friends. But in the novel the differences between stem more from the social class divide between them. In the novel I found that the gap between Marianne’s and Connell’s had a much bigger effect of their relationship that it seemed. Connell is unable to afford rent one summer and is forced to move back to Sligo, and as a result Marianne and he break up. He feels too ashamed and belittled to ask to stay with Marianne so much so that he let the relationship end.
By the following summer both Connell and Marianne have won academic scholarships which include room and board. For Marianne, the scholarship was a “self-esteem boost,” but for Connell it means a change in material circumstances. He observes that “money [is] the substance that makes the world real.” The scholarship allows him to travel and “suddenly he can spend an afternoon looking at Vermeer’s The Art of Painting.” Marianne passed the same exams, but she has already seen great art in European cities — bringing home the sharp divide over who has access to culture in our societies.
Overall, I found the book to be more thought provoking and understanding of the characters inner thoughts and feelings and though the TV series is all mostly taken from the book I do feel like they did miss bits out that should have been included or emphasised. However I did like the series in its own right, and I feel like Paul Mescal and Daisy Edger-Jones worked very well on camera together and brought their characters to life.
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