Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Mr Salary

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

icarusandthesun's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

i once heard someone say something along the lines of: if you fed chat gpt every sally rooney book and told it to write a quintessential short story, this book would be it.

and i agree. it's got every rooney-esque element in it: large age gaps, financial differences - power imbalances. a bruised and difficult relationship to paternal figures. no quotation marks. quick and unfelt writing that still manages to pull on every single one of your heartstrings.
reflections on life. reflections on death. cold and yet comforting relationship dynamics. bold and eloquent dialogue.
often unrelatable, but very pretty.

Content Warnings

samarakroeger's review

Go to review page

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I’m glad I finally read this! It became a mashed potato book because I didn’t want to exhaust my Sally Rooney supply or read it in the wrong mood or something.

Sukie, the narrator of Mr. Salary, is a classic Rooney protagonist. She has the same darkly cynical self-deprecating sense of humor as Frances. Lots of insecure attachment style present, as well as the expected parental issues (Marianne) and predilection for older men (Sukie and Nathan are by far the most similar to Eileen and Simon).

Like all of her work, this principally examines the intersection of money and class with sex and relationships, all of which have to do with power dynamics.

Knowing that this predates all of her published novels gives some insight on how Rooney has evolved as a writer, too. This is written in a style very similar to Convos with Friends (first person with more figurative language use). The similes in here were odd and unique.

I wish this was a lot longer - there’s a lot packed into a small story but Rooney could have explored it all in a lot more depth given a longer page count.

Content Warnings