The release of Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo on Sept. 24 came as a celebration for the literary community. Known for her acclaimed novels Normal People and Conversation with Friends, the Irish author gained recognition in recent years as a talented writer.
Intermezzo follows the lives of Peter and Ivan Koubek, two estranged brothers who attempt to rebuild their relationship after the death of their father. However, they find this task much more difficult than they had anticipated as their different personalities continuously clash. Peter is a successful Dublin barrister in his thirties who copes with his grief by self-medicating, while Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old chess prodigy whose ranking took a major hit during his father’s cancer treatment, which leaves them with little to no similarities. As they both struggle to find stability in their romantic and personal lives, the brothers become both intertangled yet never quite meeting.
The biggest strength of the novel is without a doubt Rooney’s ability to create complex and intricate relationships that reflect the ones present in the contemporary world.
While the majority of the novel focuses on their individual lives, Peter and Ivan find themselves connected in the most random ways. The death of their father forces them back in the same orbit, and Rooney uses this dynamic to question familial love by making her characters question what it means to love and whether the two brothers’ antipathy towards each other can be still rooted in mutual care.
Additionally, both Koubek brothers are navigating an age-gap relationship on different sides of the spectrum. Peter is dating Naomi, a free-spirited twenty-three-year-old college girl who is practically homeless and survives off the checks Peter gives her. As for Ivan, he falls in love with Margaret, a thirty-six-year-old divorcee he met during a chess event.
Parallels are exploited thoroughly in Intermezzo. Every single character could be the foil of another. By creating such a rich network of connections between the characters, Rooney demonstrates how contemporary romantic dynamics converge.
The structure of the novel also adds to the themes of parallels. Each chapter focuses in turn on one of the brothers, which highlights that while their narratives often converge, their respective narrations do not. The chapters following Peter’s thoughts are written like a stream of consciousness while Ivan’s are very descriptive and more logical.
Another important aspect of Rooney’s Intermezzo is her use of the chess metaphor. Rooney compares relationships and dynamics as moving different people on the board of life. Each main character is accorded its own chess piece on the British cover and the American endpaper, representing the role they play in each other’s lives.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in complex character dynamics and creative writing. The book might answer the question any estranged sibling asks in difficult times: Can familial love bend parallel lives in order for them to reconcile?
