RaveThe CutThat there isn’t any one way to say what the book is \'about\' could be a considered a flaw of this novel, though it never felt like one to me ... I suspect I could give Rooney writing prompts, however boring or clichéd (and her plots, taken as such, could be called both), and she would disappear for a few months then return bearing a book that would reduce me to a skull emoji, filled with melancholy longing ... Casually sharp interpersonal insights seem to roll offhand through their conversations as well as their consciousnesses, dazzling the reader ... the characters are wildly, freakishly attuned to every sensation they experience ... You get greedy, reading her. If Rachel Cusk has gut renovated the novel, Sally Rooney has stripped it for parts. Why can’t all books be like this, I started thinking midway through, just 280 pages of pure human relationship?
