I recently read Sally Rooney’s short story Mr. Salary as my first piece of text to start my millennial authors reading project. This is also my first introduction to Ms. Rooney.
Sukie, a student in her early 20s, lives with Nathan, a man in his late 30s. Nathan’s older sister married one of Sukie’s uncles, which is how they are acquainted. This short story takes place during the Christmas season and Sukie is back in Ireland from the United States for winter break. It’s evident that Sukie’s homelife growing up was troubled, which is why she’s been living with Nathan for quite some time. Sukie’s father has cancer and she is figuring out how to process this, while also figuring out what to do about Nathan, as the two have an obvious attraction to each other.
You guys know me, I’m blunt. I really, really, really disliked Mr. Salary. Borderline hated it. This story is so odd that the whole time I was reading this I was rolling my eyes and saying outloud, “What is this?!”
The writing style is blunt, which in and of itself I don’t mind. It can be just as difficult to right in a sparse, direct style as is it to write in a flowery, descriptive manner. Just read the Ancient Greeks - they mastered the art of direct yet poignant and evocative writing. However, Rooney’s style here is not my cup of tea - in my opinion there is another elegant here. And yes, a writer can be blunt and direct and still be elegant. Homer; John William; Dorothy Whipple; Barbara Pym; Elizabeth Taylor... Her use of similar and metaphor are frankly, elementary and cliche - if I had used some these metaphors in my high school papers, my English teachers would have corrected me. I can hear one of them now in my head, “Didn’t I just teach a class on avoid cliche comparisons?” She thus would have proceeded to circle the offending sentence in pen and told me to try again.
“My face was cold, burning with cold, red like a traffic light.” I’m just … not feeling it.
Yes, this is a short story and constructing short stories is not easy, as the writer has less space to get the message across. To me, Mr. Salary felt disjointed and it seemed like Rooney was trying too hard to make this deep by piecing in other events got symbolize Sukie’s inner existential crises. There’s a life boat scene that really could have been omitted and that word count could have been used towards more character development between Sukie and Nathan.
I winced several times throughout this 34 page, petite book at a lot of the dialogue between Sukie and Nathan. It was just cringey and nothing I’ll quote here, lest IG flag my post for indecent content.
To play devil’s advocate, I guess I can see what appeals to people about Rooney. There were a few sentences that “got to the point” in a way that most people may find relatable.
I know people love Rooney, but my first intro to her is a hard “no” for me. But to each their own. I may get some flack for this review, but I really don’t care because freedom of speech and opinion and all that jazz. What’s the point of doing reviews if people are nervous of having dissenting options? Clearly I’m not one of those people... . If you love Rooney, keep on loving her! My opinion is independent of yours. Just like some people don’t love my favorite book. No skin off my nose. You do you lol. Also, one should be so confident in what they like that some stranger on the internet has no baring on their feelings towards said thing.
Alas, this was a painful reading experience for me and even skimming back over Mr. Salary to write this review is making me angry. I’m mentally saying, “What the @#!& is this!?” And I still have her novels to read, which I will persevere through for the sake of my reading project. Perhaps I’ll like those a bit better than this. Pray for me.
Rating 1/5.
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