Normal People

Marianne avait l’impression que sa vraie vie se déroulait quelque part ailleurs, très loin d’ici, qu’elle se déroulait en son absence, et qu’elle ignorait si elle réussirait un jour à savoir comment la trouver et y prendre part.

Well, it's always easy to think of reasons not to do something.

Suddenly, he can spend an afternoon in Vienna looking at Vermeer's The Art of Painting, and it's hot outside, and if he wants he can buy himself a cheap cold glass of beer afterwards. It's like something he assumed was just a painted backdrop all his life has revealed itself to be real : foreign cities are real, and famous artworks, and underground railway systems, and remnants of the Berlin wall. That's money, the substance that makes the world real. There's something so corrupt and sexy about it.

Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was and become part of it. She had that feeling in school often, but it wasn't accompanied by any specific images of what the real life might look like. All she knew was that when it started, she wouldn't need to imagine it anymore.

Il y a toujours eu quelque chose en elle que les hommes cherchent à dominer, et leur désir de domination ressemble fort à de l'attirance, voire à de l'amour. À l'école, les garçons avaient tenté de la briser à force de cruauté et de mépris, et à la fac les hommes avaient tenté d'y parvenir avec le sexe et la popularité, tous dans le but commun de dompter sa force de caractère. Ça la déprimait de trouver les gens si prévisibles. Qu'elle soit respectée ou méprisée, ça ne faisait guère de différence, au bout du compte.
Chaque période de sa vie continuerait-elle à prendre la même tournure, encore et encore, celle de la même lutte implacable pour la domination ?

His appearance is like a favpurite piece of music to her, sounding a little different each time she hears it.

Marianne, he said, I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.

It was in Connell's power to make her happy. It was something he could just give her, like money or sex. With other people she seemed so independent and remote, but with Connell she was different, a different person. He was the only one who knew her like that.

At times he has the sensation that he and Marianne are like figure-skaters, improvising their discussion so adeptly and in such perfect synchronisation that it surprises them both.

They are not stupid people, but they're not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he'll probably never really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.