What a fantastic review, Mallika. Perhaps the best thing I've read on Medium today.

Normal People is about a lot of things including politics. What I noticed a lot is the cycle of abuse that Marianne - a supposed cultured, upper class, educated person - is absolutely unable to get out of.

The psychological unravelling of both Marianne and Connell is like a bad dream you can't slip out of. Utterly unputdowable.

And the political contradiction is set in her debut novel, Conversations With Friends. Frances, the protagonist is from a broken home scraping off minimum wage while her best friend, Bobby, is again like your upper class, entitled but loveable conversationalist. Again, a fascinating read.

P.S. I did a very basic review of Normal People years ago, when I read it first. Here's my review, if you want to check it out: https://soniachauhn.medium.com/normal-people-by-sally-rooney-a-book-review-59e3e34ffb0c