Gero

You want to know why I treat you like a child? Because you are a fucking child. When things get difficult, you’re gone.

Set in contemporary Ireland, “Intermezzo” scrutinizes the Koubek brothers’ personal relationships. Ivan Koubek is a twenty-two-year-old chess player, once regarded as a prodigy, whose career has stagnated. Peter Koubek is a thirty-two-year-old successful lawyer addicted to alcohol and benzodiazepines. The differences between them go beyond their ages. Peter is sociable, handsome, and has a high, steady income, whereas Ivan disregards, or so it seems, the outside world and lives on freelancing projects, which are sometimes left unpaid. Selfishness and emotional immaturity, however, are common traits to both men.

One of the central topics is age gaps in romantic relationships. In Chapter 2, Ivan sleeps with Margaret, a recent divorcée fourteen years his senior. The age difference is not an issue for Ivan, but it is a major concern for Margaret. Perhaps due to his lack of experience, Ivan fails to understand what a relationship after courtship entails. Meanwhile, Peter’s girlfriend Naomi is a university student nine years younger than him, who tries to make ends meet by selling pictures of herself online. Margaret and Peter love their respective younger partners and truly care for them, yet neither believes in their relationship.

The differences between the brothers abound, the deepest being their personal evolution. On the one hand, Ivan deems his consulting jobs a sheer waste of resources; he understands it as a bullshit job (in the sense of Graeber). However, critical Ivan—whose climate change awareness reflects on his austere sartorial choices—used to be a cartoonish teenage incel fed with right-wing internet propaganda. Ivan’s firm convictions do not hurdle his ideological and behavioral growth. On the other hand, Peter, while less impulsive, is completely reluctant to accept change. Most notably, he does not want to give up a long-lasting relationship with his former girlfriend Sylvia, even if this means disrespecting her desire to be left alone and his relationship with Naomi.

Rooney is a technically skilled and resourceful writer. The story is told by an omniscient narrator whose voice depends on the character on the spot. The narrator is eloquent when focusing on Ivan. In contrast, the sharp and short sentences describing Peter’s life vividly convey his anxiety and subsequent suicidal episodes. Rooney crafts believable characters, people with relatable traits, and several gray zones. Her attention to detail is notable. I particularly liked, for example, when Ivan explained quantifiers and truth by vacuity to Sylvia.

Two aspects of the book put me off. First, half of the conflicts in the novel could have been avoided had the self-centered characters not behaved like spoiled kids. For instance, when conversing, Ivan gives some clues to his interlocutors about what is ailing him but refuses to elaborate—reminding me of teenagers pretending to be mysterious. Also, Ivan cannot handle external criticism (despite being open to change in the long run); this leads to him cutting contact with Peter after the latter questions the affair with Margaret. Second, Peter’s selfishness is only mildly challenged once (by Naomi) throughout the novel.

“Intermezzo” is not among my favorite books, but it definitely made me interested in Rooney’s work.

Title. Intermezzo Author. Sally Rooney Year. 2024 Publisher. Faber & Faber

This is a slightly modified version of the review I posted on my goodreads account on February 3, 2025.