Normal People

Though Rooney attempts to offer psychological and philosophical insights, such efforts fail through the medium of Oliver and Alwyn’s flat affection.

The film positions its only point of intrigue as its lesbian romance, an insufficient measure given its lack of depth and inchoate narratives.

Considering the brevity of her work, how is it that Rooney has swiftly become this acclaimed literary sensation?

Each of these four books practically insist on being read by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate and a flannel blanket.

The novel excels in the way it shifts focus from the individual and onto the relationship.

With Taylor-Joy’s gazing eyes and sharp wits pounding through the screen, the audience is transported to the front row of her countless intense chess matches. If you ever thought chess was boring, “The Queen’s Gambit” will surely convince you otherwise.

The Italian Summer is an all-too-common trope in fiction, a dramatic foil to the misery of English spring showers and gray skies.

It haunts me that certain aspects of my identity can only be articulated and understood in English — they’re basically invisible, or actually, nonexistent, when discussed in my mother tongue.

Intimacy, according to “Normal People,” is a living, breathing entity that exists between two people, suspended in a web of vulnerability.