Culture chat: ‘Intermezzo’ and the Sally Rooney phenomenon

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we discuss the author Sally Rooney. Her new novel Intermezzo was published this week – causing queues outside bookstores, launch parties everywhere and a flurry of praise from critics. Does Intermezzo live up to the hype? Why has Rooney become the voice of the millennial generation? Lilah is joined by the FT’s deputy books editor Laura Battle and Griselda Murray Brown, the FT Magazine commissioning editor and her former co-host of Culture Call.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is out now, published by Faber and Faber.

– The FT’s review of Intermezzo is here: https://on.ft.com/3XGoelV

– Griselda’s interview with Sally Rooney from 2018 is here, or you can search: ‘Life and Art bonus: Normal People author Sally Rooney’ wherever you listen.

– Gris is on X @griseldamb and Laura is on X @battlelaura

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday chat show.
0:08.0	Today we are talking about maybe the most anticipated novel of the year, Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney.
0:14.6	This is the infamous Sally Rooney, author of Conversations with Friends and Normal People, often called the first great millennial novelist,
0:23.9	and Intermezzo is her fourth novel.
0:26.4	Here's the plot in a nutshell.
0:28.5	Two brothers, Peter and Ivan Kubek, living in Dublin.
0:31.6	Their father has just died.
0:33.4	The older brother, Peter, is a handsome lawyer in his early 30s, who's stuck in this love triangle between two women.
0:39.7	One of them is hot and the other one is smart.
0:42.1	The younger brother Ivan is a socially awkward chess savant in his early 20s,
0:46.5	and he's fallen in love with an older woman, Margaret, who's 36.
0:50.9	The books released this past Tuesday was like adult Harry Potter. There have been midnight bookstore
0:55.9	parties and rapturous critics and endless buzz, and so today we're going to talk about it.
1:02.5	I'm Lila and I'm spending my boyfriend's money on eyelash extensions and ketamine.
1:07.3	Joining me from London, her boyfriend's just out of uni, and she's a little embarrassed about
1:11.2	his braces. It's our brilliant deputy books editor who specializes in fiction, The Great Laura Battle.
1:17.1	Hi, Laura. Welcome. Hi, Lila. Great to be here. Also in London, this is a special guest.
1:23.0	Longtime listeners will know her as the original founder of the FT's Culture Podcast many years ago. She and I were co-host through the depths of the pandemic. It's the FT's magazine commissioning editor and my good friend, Grislda Murray Brown. Hi, Gris. Hi. So good to have you. I was excited to hear which Sally Runei line I got on. I didn't get one. Okay, here, I have one for you.
1:45.6	She's on a mission to save her dead dad's thirsty dog from her evil mother's new family.
1:50.7	It's Griselda Murray Brown. Hi, Lila. I'm so happy to have you both.
1:56.7	Okay, so first of all, I'm with two Sally Rooney experts. You've both written about her.
2:01.8	Gris, you interviewed her back in 2018.
	...

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