What’s up with Rooney’s style? Why stream of consciousness, why so few quotation marks, why the sentences completely without pronouns? They are valid questions that often turn into valid complaints, but as someone who did enjoy this book and its peculiar style, I wanted to consider some of the reasons Rooney might have written the novel this way. No real spoilers ahead, but will be discussing characters’ general dispositions in connection with the writing style.

In keeping with the novel, let’s start with Peter, pulling a random(ish) passage from the first chapter of the book:

“Nine already by the time he leaves. Four minutes past. Also a little high because they smoked together afterwards. Types into the white box: Running about 20mins late, sorry. ” (p.14)

Weird. Uncomfortable. But why is it uncomfortable? Three reasons I would point to — fragmentation, inversion, and omission of pronouns. If this passage were written more traditionally, we might read: “Peter leaves at 9:04, a little high from smoking with Naomi. He types into the white box on his phone screen: ‘Running about 20min late, sorry.’” Instead, sentences are broken up (fragmentation); prepositions and unnecessary information come before the action of the sentence (inversion); and pronouns are left out (omission). The aggregate effect of these techniques is a feeling of delay and alienation. The reader is alienated from Peter because of the unusual style, and Peter is alienated from himself because the text that holds him keeps him passive, fragmented, or even absent. At other points in the book, you will see the verb or the action of the sentence comes before Peter even arrives, and this perpetual delay reflects how passively, how emptily Peter is moving through life.

Ivan’s writing, on the other hand, is more accommodating than Peter’s in every sense — accommodating to the reader, because the syntax is more familiar and comfortable, but accommodating also to the characters within the story (hence Margaret sharing space in what could otherwise be “Ivan’s chapters” — no such sharing with Peter). This sharing of space with Margaret is also interesting because it could be read as either (or simultaneously) Ivan being more comfortable accepting others in his life, or Ivan actively needing help to understand and articulate himself. I think both readings are valid, and often alternate as the book progresses. Ivan is also more present, more traditional in his narration than Peter, less alienated from the self even as he is more alienated from those around him.

Margaret’s writing is by far the most active and most present, and also (as we might expect) the most traditional. What I find most interesting about her narration is its placement: at times preceding Ivan, at times trailing. There is intention to her life, but nervousness in the way she is going about it, and perhaps this is why she initially follows Ivan, and why it is the more significant when her section comes before his.

Tempted to dive deeper into the nitty-gritty, but it might require a closer rereading! For now, would be interested to hear anyone else’s thoughts on Rooney’s writing experiments. Does it work for you? Does it not? Why?