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The Balletic Millennial Bedtimes of ‘Normal People’ | Lorrie Moore | The New York Review of Books

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The generations have always sized up one another in broad categorical descriptors. Though much current media attention is given to the millennial disdain for their elders (e.g., “OK, Boomer”), what millennials seem like to baby boomers (who are sometimes their parents) is often discussed more quietly. To generalize sweepingly, and in a way that is not contradicted by Rooney’s work, some of the mutterings—I am only reporting—include the following: millennials seem wedded to ideas of status and conventional success, but they want to “infiltrate” plutocratic institutions as “Marxists” and prized guests; they will deride yet exploit all privilege; raised to be competitive, they find envy is not a form of hate but a legitimate aspect of success-culture and an expression of congratulations.

Visit us on Facebook! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Twitter! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Threads! Opens External Webpage Visit us on Bluesky! Opens External Webpage Mail to Print page In 2013, the Irish writer Sally Rooney, then only twenty-two, was the top debater at the European University Debating Championships. This might seem unusual for a would-be novelist. One assumes that if one were that skilled at public speaking, one would not, subsequently, take to one's desk in quietude and fictional daydreaming, for years on end. But there are other novelists who have been debaters-An

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