Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney’s newest novel, Intermezzo, set in Dublin, is the story of two brothers, Ivan (22) and Peter (32), as they grieve the recent death of their father.

The brothers are as different as they come. Peter is a successful barrister and Ivan is a chess master and a self-employed data analyst. Both struggle in relationships with women and with each other.

Ivan falls somewhere on the spectrum and, though confident in his chess ability and comfortable in his friendships, he has difficulty initiating relationships with women. When he meets Margaret, the director of an art center where he competes in a chess tournament, he falls in love. The problem is that Margaret is 36 and separated from her alcoholic husband. She is embarrassed about their age difference and tries to keep their relationship under wraps.

Peter, on the other hand, has suffered a breakup (not by his choice) with his long time girlfriend Sylvia, after a devastating accident left her with chronic pain. Always a gadabout, his newest girlfriend is Naomi, a 23-year-old homeless college student who sells photos of herself, and possibly more, to make a living. She relies on Peter to bail her out financially on a regular basis, which initially makes her “affection” for Peter suspect.

Peter and Ivan’s mother left the family when Ivan was only five years old, and she is in a new relationship. She is embarrassed of Ivan, whom she sees as socially inept and under employed, but proud of Peter’s position and prowess. Neither brother wants much to do with their mother.

The brothers deal with their grief after their father’s death in different ways. Peter resents that his father has always put pressure on him to take care of his younger brother – he drinks a lot and pops Xanax like jellybeans. Ivan avoids his mother’s phone calls and lacks initiative when his clients are late with their payments. When Peter finds out about Ivan’s older girlfriend, he is judgmental, which is disingenuous given that he is dating a much younger woman, and the brothers have a falling out.

Sally Rooney’s superpower is her ability to create realistic characters whose lives are messy and unpredictable. They struggle with relationships, employment, addiction, and their own feelings. The familial conflicts in Intermezzo felt true to life – the older brother judging his younger brother for his choices while blind to his own issues – the older brother resenting the responsibility of caretaking his younger brother – the fractured relationship with the mother who abandoned the family when Ivan was young – the different ways of grieving – one brother self medicating with drugs and alcohol and the other avoiding going to his father’s house and taking responsibility for his father’s dog.

And while it is the author’s job to create rising conflict – I appreciate Rooney’s ending – not saccharine or entirely resolved – but hopeful – with Peter and Ivan finding a way to make a new version of family.