A classic novel turned upside-down and inside-out: Normal People is just another cliché of classic romantic novels, of which Pride and Prejudice is probably the most obvious; a genre which has been repeated and imitated to death, and NP is another installment - well, readers of certain synopses might mistakenly think so. The first page produces an immediate sense that "this is different"; the tension in a situation we have just entered (but that is familiar to us all), the eroticism, the anxiety (paradoxically, after they have received such good exam results - but the dreaded Leaving Cert is coming up), Connell's awkwardness; in short, it feels real. If one was to compare it to P&P for its similar plot - and various sources have (8, 18) - one could also compare the realism of the characters of both novels; the accuracy and simplicity of the description and dialogue. NP , like other great works of art, is a con...