So you’ve watched BBC’s Normal People (twice), read Sally Rooney’s novel, followed Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones on Instagram and even swooned over the weekend as you saw them join up with Andrew Scott for the Normal People x Fleabag crossover charity video (if you haven’t seen the latter, we advise you to watch it immediately, if only for the singing) - but you still can’t quench your Normal People thirst.
Thankfully, Instagram’s coolest book club has come to your rescue.
Between Two Books is run by Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine fame) and this week it’s released a three minute and 48 second clip of Mescal reading a passage from Normal People.
Wearing a white shirt and what looks to be a chain, keeping in character, Mescal reads the section where Connell meets Marianne at Trinity for the first time after they left high school.
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He describes the interaction, and how Connell and Marianne discuss her new boyfriend, Gareth.
Mescal reads: “She’s wearing lipstick. Everyone is watching her now. She has been speaking, but she stopped to stare at him. ‘Jesus Christ,’ she says, ‘Connell Waldron, from beyond the grave.’ He coughs, and in a panic to appear normal, says, ‘When did you take up smoking?’ To Gareth, to her friends, she adds, ‘We went to school together’.”
Mescal’s Irish accent feels almost therapeutic as he reads on, feeding the flame of our ever-growing crush.
Normal People was the biggest selling novel of lockdown, thanks to its stellar TV adaptation. Rooney’s 2018 Man Booker Prize long-listed work was the most purchased book on Amazon between March 23 and May 11.