Re Sally Rooney’s INTERMEZZO: Well, folks, I hate to say it but, 150 pages in it’s undeniable: I’m starting to actually like the book. Look, I tried not to, I really did. But her characters are growing on me. Ivan, a 22-year-old autistic kid, feels too soft and nice but still seems to work as a character. The 36-year-old guilt-riddled Margaret feels very authentic. But it’s the mid-thirties Peter, drug-hazed and a lonely sugar-daddy, that really strikes me. His POV feels very well-fleshed out and believable.

I actually, genuinely want to keep reading. Don’t worry: Still plenty of complaints. For example: Rooney has a bad habit of injecting her own politics into characters’ dialogue when it feels totally out of place; worse, the politics are quite stupid. Kinda undergrad pseudo-Marxism. Yet some of her lines made me stop and think or wish I’d written them. Another thing: I wanted her to lack nuance, to be completely ideological and radical. But she’s not. She creates complex, layered characters. Human characters.