Normals Book

Set in the pre-milennium buzz and stock market boom of 90s New York, The Normals by David Gilbert is a stark and often depressing observation of the omnipresent need for human connection.

Billy Schine, Harvard educated and permanent temp-job holder, absconds in fear over unpaid tuition fees to the safety and generous remuneration of the HAM medical testing centre. As the reader learns more about Billy's life of inaction and internal debate over the smallest of issues through events at the centre, it becomes increasingly hard to like him. But part of the underlying genius of this novel is David Gilbert's ability to make you empathise with his main character despite not actually feeling much warmth towards him.

The truth is that the Normals falls into the uncomfortable position of a book that is littered with well-employed metaphors and literary accomplishment but its completion delivers only relief and it fails to provide any true reader enjoyment.

Having said that, although first published over a decade ago this, the author's first and only novel, serves as both a window to the past and a stark reminder of our increasingly disengaged present. It is undeniably insightful on the various levels of human relationships; the identification of which possibly adds to the reader's overall discomfort.

And there is a sense, after reading The Normals, of buying a crash helmet after you've fallen off your bike.