Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Page 18
Under what conditions is life endurable? She ought to know. Ask her. Don't.
Page 23
Standing on his own in the corner, Ivan thinks with no especially intense focus about the most efficient method of organising, say, a random distribution of a given number of tables and chairs into the aforementioned arrangement of a central U- shape, etc. It's something he has thought about before, while standing in other corners, watching other people move similar furniture around similar indoor spaces: the different approaches you could use, say if you were writing a computer program to maximise process efficiency. The accuracy of these particular men, in relation to the moves recommended by such a program, would be, Ivan thinks, pretty low, like actually very low.
Page 49
Women are going to fall in love with you, believe me. That's when the problems start.
Page 50
Her professional life, eight years of marriage, whatever she believes about her personal values, everything. And yet, accepting the premise, allowing life to mean nothing for a moment, doesn't it simply feel good to be in the arms of this person?
Page 123
Afterwards, television, cloud of steam from the kettle boiling. Nights he no longer has to spend trapped in claustrophobic solitude, self- medicated, panic attack or am I dying how to tell. Instead the deep replenishing reservoir of her presence.
Page 123
After weeks of sleeplessness he wakes now only to hear her turning on the coffee machine in the morning, low pummelling sound through the wall. Peace so intense and complete he could weep.
Page 168
A sight for sore eyes, he repeated. I know it's a cliché. But it's so relevant to the situation, you have no idea.
Page 171
Maybe he doesn't need to know about her life, she thinks. And if he wants to tell her about his life, she's happy to listen. Is that so wrong? To spend a little time together, liking one another, even very much, and nothing more.
Page 225
For a moment the screen darkens, connecting, and then the signal drops. Call unsuccessful. What does he have to tell him anyway. I just want to say, I'm on your side. I know I've never done anything to help you, Ivan, but in principle, in spirit. I've been on your side all along.
Page 283
The most distressing thing about Bridget's attitude to Margaret, and especially towards her marriage, is not the belief that Bridget is being cruel, so much as the suspicion, bred in the bone, a lifelong instinct, that after all she might be right.
Page 293
The demands of other people do not dissolve; they only multiply. More and more complex, more difficult. Which is another way, she thinks, of saying: more life, more and more of life.