new writing: rooneyisms (part ii)

at wsj

MichaelMaggs at Wikimedia Commons

For the books page at the Wall Street Journal, I reviewed Intermezzo. Tired of Intermezzo reviews? Too bad! As Kesha once said—the party don’t start til I walk in. Here it is.

Of all the relationships open to the novel to explore—love affairs, marriages, friendships, rivalries, parents and children—the relationships that exist among siblings have similarities that combine several, with their own complications besides. Shared memories can also become conflicting eyewitness testimonies. And siblings are aware that they play some sort of mysterious central role in another person’s life and development, whether they want to or not.

Read the rest here. I really liked Intermezzo. If you have tried reading Rooney’s work before and hated it, I would say you have a .01% chance of liking it (as opposed to 0%).

Finally, I want to mention that I have what appears to be a reading of the whole Sylvia thing shared by no one (the Sylvia thing is here), but since the boo…