Intermezzo

“She has been contained before, contained and directed, by the trappings of ordinary life. Now she no longer feels contained or directed by anything at all. Life has slipped free of its netting. ”

— page 56

Title: Intermezzo
Author: Sally Rooney
Published: September 2024

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships 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 seen 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 their lives become rapidly and intensely 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.

1. Peter, Ivan, and Margaret each go through their own struggles and changes. Which character did you connect with the most, and why?

2. How does the book show love in different forms — romantic, family, and friendship? Are there times when love seems unconditional or when it comes with strings attached?

3. Some relationships in the book, like Peter’s with Sylvia and Naomi, or Ivan’s with Margaret, involve power imbalances. How do these affect the characters and their choices?

4. Margaret’s thoughts and feelings are explored more deeply than Naomi’s and Sylvia’s. How does this affect your view of her and the other relationships in the story?

5. Grief is a big theme in the book. How does losing their father affect Peter and Ivan? How do their reactions show who they are as people?

6. The concept of “intermezzo” as an in-between moment is woven throughout the novel. How does this metaphor resonate in the lives of the characters and their attempts to move forward amidst loss and love?

7. Rooney integrates social and cultural critiques, from the Irish housing crisis to class privilege. How do these larger societal issues shape the characters’ lives and relationships? Do you think these elements strengthen the novel’s themes?

8. Rooney writes Peter’s chapters in a fragmented way and Ivan’s in a more structured style. How did these stylistic choices enhance your understanding of the brothers’ characters and inner lives?

9. Dialogue plays a significant role in advancing the plot and deepening the characters in Intermezzo. Did any particular conversation stand out to you? How did it contribute to the overall story?

10. How does Rooney's sparse punctuation and focus on everyday tasks juxtaposed with deep intellectual and emotional conversations affect the reading experience?

11. The book mentions famous writers and thinkers like Joyce and Keats. Did these references add to your understanding of the story? Do any of the characters remind you of those from other books?

12. Rooney’s novels often lack definitive endings, leaving questions unresolved. Did you find the open-ended conclusion of Intermezzo satisfying or frustrating? How does it reflect the novel’s central themes?

Further Reading

The Women's Podcast: The Book Club: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney:
https://shows.acast.com/the-womens-podcast/episodes/the-book-club-intermezzo-by-sally-rooney

The New York Times: The Interview, Sally Rooney Thinks Career Growth Is Overrated:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/magazine/sally-rooney-interview.html

The Financial Times: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney — an engrossing study of the male psyche: https://www.ft.com/content/59100255-ed50-46f5-bff9-425b0fd6e8a5

Weirdos Book Club Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RgD6Eu7l50CPvb5XX162P?si=d024fe96f6fc4239