Intricacies of Relationships

Ireland is a rich minefield of literary talents. With origins dating as early as the fourth or fifth century CE, Irish literature is one of the oldest literatures in Europe. Irish literature has, over the years, produced some of the world’s most talented writers whose individual oeuvres have swept the world. Their works are recognized globally and are germane in contemporary literary discourses. Irish literature boasts being the home of literary titans such as James Joyce, Iris Murdoch, Bram Stoker, C.S. Lewis, William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Maria Edgeworth, and Oliver Goldsmith, among others. These are just among the names that Irish literature has become synonymous with. They have produced some of the most recognized literary titles such as Joyce’s Ulysses, Stoker’s Dracula, Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea, and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. These works have transcended time and physical boundaries.

The rich Irish literary tradition is carried over into the present by equally talented and equally heralded writers such as Colm Tóibín, Anne Enright, Maggie O’Farrell, Paul Lynch, and Peter Murray, among others. Their works have received accolades across the world. Enright and Lynch were awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in Fiction for their works The Gathering (2007) and Prophet Song (2023). Meanwhile, O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize in Fiction for Hamnet (2020). Also in the company of these exemplary writers is Sally Rooney who is slowly establishing herself as an authority for the millennial voice. She made her literary debut in 2017 with Conversations with Friends which was shortlisted for the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award, on top of shortlisting in other prestigious literary prizes. Her debut novel and succeeding works Normal People (2018) and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) demonstrated her mastery of the millennial novel.

In 2024, Rooney made her literary comeback with her fourth novel, Intermezzo. At the heart of Intermezzo are two Irish brothers, thirty-two-year-old Peter Koubek and twenty-two-year-old Ivan. We first meet them in the months immediately following the death of their father after years of battling against cancer. The brothers were trying to navigate living a life with a void at the center. Their father was a Slovakian engineer who immigrated to Ireland in the 1980s. In his new country, he met and married Christine, Peter and Ivan’s mother. However, Christine abandoned her children and husband for a different man shortly after the birth of Ivan. Their father primarily raised his sons in their home in Kildare. Perhaps due to the generational gap and their starkly contrasting personalities, the brothers have always been at odds with each other and the death of their father only exacerbated the cracks that existed between them, growing ever wider.

How often in life he has found himself a frustrated observer of apparently impenetrable systems, watching other people participate effortlessly in structures he can find no way to enter or even understand. So often that it’s practically baseline, just normal existence for him. And this is not only due to the irrational nature of other people, and the consequent irrationality of the rules and processes they devise; it’s due to Ivan himself, his fundamental unsuitedness to life. He knows this. He feels himself to have been formed, somehow, with something other than life in mind.

  Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

In alternating perspectives, Rooney painted a vivid portrait of each brother. Peter is a barrister in Dublin. On the surface, he was a competent human rights lawyer who had built a successful career. He was aloof and self-righteous. He was also well-versed socially. Ambitious and dominant, everything seems to be going well for the older brother. His affairs were all in order, on the surface. Nothing seems to be amiss, prompting Ivan to believe that Peter is the kind of person who goes along the surface of life very smoothly. This, however, could not be further from the truth. His aura of confidence and self-assurance were all a veneer. Beyond the façade, Peter is obscuring a struggle against depression instigated by the recent passing of their father. He feels lost and is having difficulties going to sleep. He has come to rely on medication to sleep and, even, when worse comes to worst, to get through the day. Peter was a mess but he refuses to acknowledge his fall from grace.

On the other hand, Ivan was his older brother’s antithesis. Fresh out of university, he was socially awkward and had no vision for the future. He was drifting along as the tide of life moved forward. Despite a theoretical physics degree, he struggled to make ends meet. He was barely scraping by from his meager earnings as a part-time data analyst. Like his brother, his enormous talent sets him apart from his peers. He was a chess virtuoso and continued playing competitive chess after their father’s death. However, he was still weighed down by grief. It was while recovering from his recent loss – and during a weekend chess exhibition where he played ten people at once at a local arts council in Leitrim in the Irish countryside – Ivan met thirty-six-year-old Margaret Kearns, an art historian who runs the local art center. Ivan was immediately drawn to Margaret.

The intricacies of relationships once again take center stage in Rooney’s latest novel. Beyond the blood ties of Peter and Ivan, Intermezzo also probes into their romantic relationships, with the novel opening with Ivan’s encounter with Margaret. Margaret adds a dimension to the story as she is older than Peter. She was cognizant of her age gap with Ivan but nevertheless indulged his youthful energy. This marked the start of a passionate love affair that surprised everyone who knew Ivan. At the onset, she saw him as a disruption to the routine of countryside living. Peter, on the other hand, was tangled in an equally complicated relationship with Naomi, a twenty-three-year-old university student supporting herself through occasional sex work. Their relationship is unusual because Peter sends her money, basically supporting her financially.

However, Peter sees his relationship with Naomi as anything but transactional. Despite the nature of their relationship, Peter was fond of Naomi but his affection for her was hampered by the past. He was haunted by his undying love for his college and long-time girlfriend Sylvia Larkin, now a professor of modern literature. Sylvia was, in many aspects, a reflection of Peter. They made the perfect couple and she was essentially a member of Peter’s family. However, Sylvia broke up with Peter six years before following a debilitating accident – left undetailed – that left her in chronic pain and ruling out the possibility of sex. She made the excuse that she would be ruining his life; she didn’t want him to have to care for her. Despite the passage of time Peter never got over his love for Sylvia; they remained close friends after their breakup. His enduring love for Sylvia resulted in his lingering feeling of guilt for leading Naomi on although he considers his relationship with Sylvia as mutilated by circumstance into something illegible.

She has been contained before, contained and directed, by the trappings of ordinary life. Now she no longer feels contained or directed by anything at all. Life has slipped free of its netting. She can do very strange things now, she can find herself a very strange person. Young men can invite her into holiday cottages for sexual reasons. It means nothing. That isn’t true: it means something, but the meaning is unfamiliar.

  Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

In chess, intermezzo, literally interlude, refers to an unexpected move posing a severe threat and forcing an immediate response. In music, intermezzo refers to a short part of a musical work such as an opera that connects major parts of the work; in a way, an in-between. In a way, the position that Peter and Ivan found themselves in was an in-between, Their father’s death was a catalyst for Peter and Ivan to reckon with their own detachment from each other. As things came to a head, they were not always this distant from each other. When they were younger, Peter was Ivan’s protector; Ivan’s perspective implied – it was never confirmed – his neurodivergence. However, the dynamics of their relationship were altered by a traumatic event in Peter’s life. The harmonious relationship became fraught with tension and unease, with only their father serving as the go-between. With their father gone, there was no one to break the tension between them. The loss of their bond was one of many losses that permeated the story.

In the brothers’ unraveling lives, Rooney also captures the intricacies of sibling relationships. The exploration of familial love, however, felt peripheral as Peter and Ivan’s parents were treated more as backdrops rather than as characters who played a germane role in their sons’ upbringing. Still, the relationship between the brothers showed dimensions of the complexities of family life. A cathartic moment toward the end of the story, however, does provide an intimate glimpse into the subject, particularly on the pressures placed by a parent’s and society’s unrealistic expectations on the shoulders of the members of the family. What do we do when the people who we believe we can run to in times of trouble can’t provide us the assurance we need? Some of us spend our lifetimes protecting those we love. But who do we run to in our moments of weakness? We respond differently and in the best way we can. Families and sibling relationships are anything but straightforward.

Intermezzo is character-driven, hence, a more subdued pace that takes time to build up. The novel finds strength in the characters’ introspection. Peter and Ivan are drawn to reflecting on their life; their shared grief was a catalyst. As one wade through their musings, it is palpable how both want to prove to themselves that they are essentially good people, gauging their actions against what they perceive as society’s moral standards. The rugged terrain of the characters’ internal turmoil was astutely incorporated into the writing style; it shifts with the change in character. Peter’s anxieties were captured by short and fast sentences, highlighting how he was all over the place. It reverberated with panic and confusion. They were erratic and filled with self-doubt. This is a stark dichotomy to the more relaxed flow of Ivan’s perspective. These distinct tones also situate the readers into the characters’ minds.

The landscape of the brothers’ internal strife was captured by Rooney with precision. Theirs are universal experiences many can relate to and attest to. Peter and Ivan were seized by feelings of regret for moments and opportunities they missed while growing up. With no one to accept the accolades and the blame, they inevitably ascribed to each other actions that did not conform to their perceived social and moral standards. They blamed each other for their struggles and even how they treated their father in his twilight years. With the tension slowly percolating on the surface, Rooney carefully laid out the sets the story up for a climactic resolution. A moment of confrontation as the story approached its conclusion, fittingly set in their childhood home in Kildare left empty following their father’s demise, was a release of tension, as bitterness spilled over but ushered a new level of understanding.

The most distressing thing about Bridget’s attitude to Margaret, and especially towards her marriage, is not the belief the Bridget is being cruel, so much as the suspicion, bred in the bone, a lifelong instinct, but after all she might be right. Can the deep childhood impulse to trust one’s mother, to agree with her against oneself, ever be wrestled down by the comparatively thin force of reasoned argument? Are there even reasoned arguments to be made in matters of love, marriage, intimate life?

  Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

Peter and Ivan’s romantic entanglements also provided them room to understand themselves. Relationships, all its forms and shapers, were, after all, part and parcel of the story. Rooney probes into the unconventional although Peter and Sylvia’s college romance was a thing fairy tales were made of, until it wasn’t. Everyone knew they were destined until destiny intervened. Peter’s relationship with Naomi, and, consequently, Ivan with Margaret, captures different facets of romantic relationships. The characters were cognizant of the age gaps between them and their lovers, prompting them to act accordingly. Margaret, for instance, tried to keep her relationship away from the prying eyes of the public lest she be judged. Peter was equally hypocritical. His initial reaction to his younger brother’s relationship with an older woman was one of disdain. Both of these relationships subtly underline the power imbalance.

Beyond the intricacies of relationships, Intermezzo probes into subjects germane in the contemporary. Social and political commentaries were subtly woven into the novel’s lush tapestry. Climate change was referred to in the story. The characters also voiced their opinions on the late capitalist economy. Some characters were also struggling with Ireland’s housing crisis, with Ivan struggling to pay his rent; this was, interestingly, further underscored by the difficulty of finding a home for their dog. Echoes of the recent COVID-19 pandemic further cemented the novel’s position in the present moment. The story also probes into the xenophobia experienced by other Europeans within some European countries. This was particularly highlighted through Peter’s struggle to make it to the top. He lamented that what native Irish were born to, he has to work for. Ivan, on the other hand, attributes a portion of his alienation from the impenetrable systems of community and society as a whole. The story also explores mental health and addiction.

The novel’s wonderful elements were woven together by Rooney into a lush tapestry. It was riddled with hallmarks of Irishness. It was rife with the intersection of Catholicism and sexual desire, the offhanded exploration of alcoholism, and even walks across the streets of Dublin that take the readers to familiar places, akin to Leopold Bloom’s walk across the city in James Joyce’s Ulysses; Ulysses was one of Rooney’s inspirations. Intermezzo, like Rooney’s earlier works, subtly features Ireland and its culture. The characters’ development was also one of the novel’s strong points. One character, for instance, used to subscribe to YouTube channels with incel leanings but, over the course of the story, redeemed himself and gained sympathy for women. The characters learn to embrace who they are and the imperfections of those around them. They forgive those who hurt them and learn to love uninhibited.

Despite the somber atmosphere that hovered above the story, Intermezzo was rife with tender and heartwarming moments. Rooney’s understanding not only of her own roots but of people shines through in her fourth novel. Her fourth novel contains echoes of her earlier works: complex characters who are drifters and seemingly unlikeable; eccentric romantic entanglements; the beauty of establishing connections in an increasingly tumultuous world; and, miscommunications and intimacy. In Intermezzo, Rooney pushes the limits of her lore as it is the first of her works to intertwine complex family relationships and romantic connections. The novel lives up to its title; it indeed captures an interlude in Peter and Ivan’s life. Instigated by grief, the brothers were forced to reckon with their past and their turbulent relationship. What was, at the onset, a story about acceptance of loss slowly evolved into a gripping story about embracing life, both the good and the bad, a reminder that even in the darkness, love flourishes.

I was there, I served my hours, punched my time card, don’t forget. I did everything that could be done. Don’t blame me. I was there. While his father sat timidly beside him, embarrassed probably by his peremptory manner. Afraid of alienating the doctors. Why even think about that now. The suffering of another person. Which he failed to stop. False show of competence only disguising the act of his uselessness, his failure to do anything, to make anything better, to make any difference at all.

  Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
Book Specs

Author: Sally Rooney
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publishing Date: 2024
No. of Pages: 448
Genre: Literary, Contemporary

Synopsis

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationship with two very different women – his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

About the Author

To learn more about Irish writer Sally Rooney, click here.