Intermezzo – Sally Rooney (2024) Book Review

---

“And yet, accepting the premise, allowing life to mean nothing for a moment, doesn’t it simply feel good.”

---

Intermezzo was my first foray into the world of Sally Rooney (late to the party, I know). Through the likes of Normal People and Conversations with Friends, Rooney has become renowned for her ability to capture the intricacies of modern relationships. Orbiting around brothers Ivan and Peter as they navigate grief, love, guilt, and connection in the aftermath of personal upheaval, the novel unfolds through shifting perspectives and quiet, interior moments rather than any dramatic set pieces. It’s a story grounded in the everyday conversations, memories, and passing thoughts – and one that promises an intimate examination of the ways in which we relate to one another, and just as often, how we fail to. Join us today at What We Reading for my Intermezzo book review to see how this Sally Rooney novel stacks up against the Irish author’s other works, and in the wider literary genre! 

---

Date Published: 2024

Author: Sally Rooney

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction

Pages: 464

Goodreads Rating: 3.81/5

---

Intermezzo Summary

Aside from the fact they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties- successful, competent, and seemingly unassailable. But in the wake of his 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 viewed 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 the lives soon become 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. 

---

Check Out The Best Books Like Intermezzo

---

What Worked

As we mentioned, this was my first taste of a Sally Rooney book, and it immediately made me understand why she’s become so revered. The writing here is exceptional – controlled, vivid, and quietly devastating – to the point where it genuinely gave me imposter syndrome as a “fellow” writer. This feels very much like a book penned by someone operating at the height of their powers, and one they’ve poured themselves into entirely. 

At its core, Intermezzo is an intimate study of relationships, especially the strained bond between brothers Peter and Ivan and the women at the hearts of their lives. 

Rooney captures the messiness of human connection with startling precision: the miscommunications, the quiet resentments, the self-sabotages, and the ways in which people so often fail to spot their own flaws. 

The dynamic between the brothers feels deeply believable, shaped by their incompatibilities and emotional blind spots, and their evolving relationship ultimately leads to a satisfying and emotionally resonant conclusion. 

One of the novel’s biggest strengths lies in how it explores difference – how two people just a decade apart in age can move through the world with wildly different approaches to love, guilt, grief, regret, and responsibility. 

Both Ivan and Peter are at times both intensely unlikeable, marred by poor decisions and difficult traits, yet they never feel false. Rooney makes their worst moments understandable, grounding them in a level of emotional authenticity that’s hard to shake. 

The shifting points of view elevate the story even further. Each narrator feels distinct, from Margaret’s quiet introspection, to Ivan’s anxious spirals, to Peter’s self-loathing internal monologues (my personal favourite). Rooney’s ability to inhabit these voices so convincingly reinforces the sense that Intermezzo is less about plot than about emotional excavation. 

Ultimately, Intermezzo reads like a near-microscopic analysis of relationships and inner lives. It’s built on the mundane rhythms of everyday existence – conversations, memories, passing thoughts – and shows how these seemingly inconsequential moments accumulate into something quietly existential. It’s a story that lingers with you not only because of the drama, but because of how deeply it understands people. 

What Didn’t

With all of that being said, Intermezzo isn’t without any frustrations. If there’s one consistent issue, it’s the length. At 464 pages, the novel sometimes feels a bit overindulgent. Whilst the ending delivers a genuinely satisfying conclusion – particularly with the brothers’ relationship – there are moments where one internal ramble feels like one too many, and the pacing can start to drag. There were a few times when I did want Rooney to hurry things along just a little. 

Rooney’s stylistic choices could also be divisive. Her rejection of traditional grammar rules, most notably the complete absence of any quotation marks, is immediately jarring and will certainly put some readers off. 

The Peter sections, in particular, lean heavily into that stream-of-consciousness style, and while it ultimately suits his character, it can be disorienting and difficult to settle into at first. 

Finally, Intermezzo is very much a novel about introspection and emotional self-flagellation. If the idea of spending hundreds of pages inside the head of two men analysing, over-analysing, bemoaning, and occasionally wallowing in their lives doesn’t appeal, this is a book that’s unlikely to win you over. 

Verdict

Intermezzo is a quietly powerful novel – one that demands patience but rewards it with emotional depth and startling insight. Despite its occasional indulgences and deliberately challenging style, the book is exceptionally well-written, anchored by richly realised characters and an unflinching examination of love, guilt, grief, and self-sabotage. 

Rooney’s ability to dissect the messiness of human relationships with such precision and empathy is precisely what makes Intermezzo linger long after the final page. It’s a compelling reminder of why she’s become renowned as one of the most astute writers of connection and intimacy working today. 

---

Our Rating: 4/5

---