Spotlight
There’s a scene in Sally Rooney’s second
novel, Normal People, that feels both small
and monumental. At a college pool party,
rather than playing a game of chicken
with friends, Connell joins Marianne
on the ledge—the will-they-won’t-they
couple’s first public display of affection.
It’s a simple choice, yet under Rooney’s
subtle management, it becomes an emo-
tional high from which to fall.
Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Mari-
anne in the series adaptation premier-
ing next year on Hulu and the BBC, calls
moments like this one “quite iconic,” a
mastery of the sort of intimate resonanceTh e K i d s
Are All Right
VANITY FAIR 101