Review: Sally Rooney's Normal People rejects the 'second-album' curse with all the effortless cool of one of her characters

Sally Rooney's new novel Normal People rejects the 'second-album' curse with all the effortless cool of one of her characters. Normal People sauntered directly on to the Booker longlist, confirming Rooney as a mammoth talent for anyone still undecided after her confident debut, Conversations With Friends. All this effortlessness is perhaps a misnomer. Presumably no one pens an addictive debut (or follow-up) without some blood and sweat but no writerly angst seeps into Rooney's clipped, precise and often beautiful prose.