Sally Rooney, _Intermezzo_

 FOR MY MONEY, she's done it again--another brilliant novel. 

Most of the novel is written from male characters' points of view--those of the brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek--which is unusual for Rooney but not unprecedented, as roughly half of Normal People was written from Connell's point of view. And roughly a quarter of this one comes from a female point of view, that of Ivan's lover Margaret, and everyone is in their twenties or thirties, and it is all set in Ireland, so everything feels appropriately Rooneyesque.

Peter is a public interest lawyer, Ivan a professional-level chess player. For a lot of the novel, they are not talking to each other, the main issues being (1) a difference in age of about ten years, (2) younger's brother Ivan's being neuro-diverse, (3) their parents' divorce when Peter was in his teens, and (4) their father's recent death. 

Peter is close friends with Sylvia, a former girlfriend from his time at university who is now a literature professor. Their relationship fundamentally altered when a bad accident left her unable to have penetrative sex. He still spends a lot time with her, but he has taken up with a woman about ten years younger, Naomi, who derives part of her income from something similar an OnlyFans account. Their sexual relationship is steamily robust, but Peter seems to have more emotional rapport with Sylvia. 

Peter's chapters remind me a lot of the Stephen Daedalus episodes in Joyce's Ulysses. Peter is well-read, spends a lot of time wandering around central Dublin, and often seems to be not quite holding everything together. His stream of consciousness is staccato, disjunctive, and occasionally alarming, a bit like Stephen's in the "Proteus" episode.

Ivan is easier to like, sweeter and more modest, but he has a harder time reading other people and he is anxious that his chess performance has plateaued well short of grandmaster level. His big break is falling in love with...

...Margaret, who is also in love with him. She is twelve or thirteen years older and has just gotten out of a bad marriage. They are lovely together, but it's a relationship Ivan's friends and family are likely to look at askance, as Peter does--which is why Ivan blocks Peter's phone messages.

What did I love about this novel? That the main conflicts just melt away after people have serious  talks about them.

Peter feels he ought to choose between Sylvia and Naomi. But...does he have to? Do Sylvia and Naomi resent or envy each other? Turns out...no, they don't. Can they arrive at a way to co-exist as a trio? Possibly, after talking it out, yes. 

Is Margaret too old for Ivan? Would people talk, snigger, object, condemn? Maybe. Is that a reason they can't be together? No, they decide, after talking it out a bit.

And Peter and Ivan have a good talk too (after a tense scene of physical confrontation).

The beauty of the ending is that the evaporation of the conflicts does not seem contrived, or an easy way out, or wishful thinking, or anything of that sort. The conflicts evaporate because people find themselves brave enough and clear-headed enough to think things through and be honest with each other. It's the most encouraging novel I have read in a while.