Summary
Chapter 1
An unnamed narrator takes pity on an awkward young man who dons a suit and braces at a funeral. The young man, whose name is Ivan, flamboyantly disregards social etiquette through his disheveled appearance. The narrator, Peter, then considers what his girlfriend Naomi will be wearing when she answers the door. She lets him into her place, and she asks why he hasn't contacted her in so long. He informs her that his father died. She comforts him and asks after Ivan. She also hints at feeling disappointed that he didn't ask her to come to the funeral. Peter states that she doesn't look "old enough" to be his friend, let alone his girlfriend.
Naomi has a side gig doing online sex work to support herself when the money that Peter gives her is insufficient. A few weeks prior, she sold risqué photos of herself to earn the cash she needed to buy textbooks. Peter considers admitting to her that he spent time with his ex-girlfriend Sylvia at his father's funeral, but decides not to. After leaving Naomi's place, Peter meets Sylvia at an Italian restaurant and later goes home with her. She asks how Naomi is doing given her difficult tenant situation. She also encourages Peter to reach out to Ivan.
Chapter 2
Ivan watches a woman enter the room of a chess event. She introduces herself as Margaret and asks after the chess prodigy who is expected to arrive. Ivan clarifies that he is the young man the staff were waiting for. During their interaction, Ivan fixates on how attractive Margaret is, and guesses how awkward it must be for her to receive unwanted sexual comments and invitations. In an attempt to distract himself from the anxiety of the impending chess event, Ivan breaks down his apprehension. He does not actually fear the game itself, just the chronological inevitability of a scheduled event.
Margaret takes a liking to Ivan. She observes him winning chess games against multiple opponents from the chess club. Afterwards, they all go to a bar, and Margaret and Ivan have a chance to speak together alone. Margaret wonders if there is a sexual tension between the two of them, which is later confirmed when Ivan invites her inside the house where he is staying. They have sex, and Ivan gives Margaret his number the next day.
Chapter 3
Peter calls Ivan to ask how he is faring since their father's funeral. Reticent, Ivan delivers brief answers. Peter asks if their father used to talk with Ivan. The brothers make a lunch plan for the following weekend. Naomi texts Peter a screenshot of her overdrafted bank account, and Peter sends her money. The next morning, Peter takes Xanax and goes to work, gets dinner and drinks with friends, then heads to Naomi's house party. She shows him an eviction notice that she and her roommates received. Peter is chagrined when one of the roommates asks how he knows Naomi, since they likely assume that Peter met her through her online sex worker profile. He leaves the party early, annoyed when Naomi's friends seem to insinuate gross intentions on his part, and goes to Sylvia's house. They end up kissing and exchanging declarations of love.
Chapter 4
Margaret almost tells her friend Anna about her encounter with Ivan, but decides not to. As she cooks and eats her dinner, she contemplates who she can talk to. In a few minutes, she will call her mother about a new dishwasher that Margaret is buying for her. Already, Margaret is certain that her mother will mention Margaret's ex-husband, Ricky. Meanwhile, Ivan researches how to put his dog into a fostering system. Margaret calls him, and though they flirt, she makes it clear that their age difference is an issue. Nevertheless, they agree to meet up. In the car, Margaret asks Ivan if he works, and his answer morphs into a discussion about labor, worth, and compensation. In answer to the question, he tells her that he works freelance jobs doing data analysis to support himself in his chess aspirations. Recently, however, he feels he has not been playing well, especially since his father got diagnosed with cancer. Ivan admits to feeling comfortable around Margaret, which is a rarity for him. They go to bed together.
Ivan makes peace with Margaret's conflicting feelings about the situation because of their mutual desire. Peter and Ivan were supposed to meet for lunch; when Ivan doesn't show, Peter calls from the restaurant, forgiving Ivan after deducing that he is with a woman. Ivan does not tell Peter any explicit details about Margaret. Ivan and Margaret consider what people in Margaret's life would say if they knew she was going out with someone much younger.
Analysis
Rooney's grammatical choices contribute to the narrator's voice, cadence, and style of speaking. The novel's very first sentence, "Didn’t seem fair on the young lad," is a fragment lacking an explicit subject. Elliptical constructions are common in informal spoken English. The narrator (Peter) continues to drop the subject in subsequent sentences, which causes the statements to sound colloquial or intimate. Given that Peter assesses his younger brother's character and passes judgments, the reader can deduce that this is a close third-person perspective. This distinct voice is the first identifier the reader is given, and it demonstrates the brothers' strained relationship before revealing their names. The prose of the novel is crafted to reflect the characters' inner thoughts and voices. Peter's appears in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Peter seems to divide his needs between Sylvia and Naomi, relying on the former for companionship and the latter for physical intimacy. He considers Sylvia to be his intellectual equal, while his objectifying descriptions of Naomi reduce her to just her body and the gratification it provides. While the relationship between Naomi and Peter demonstrates some degree of emotional attachment, it also is somewhat transactional because Naomi relies on Peter for financial support. Sylvia is aware of Peter's relationship with Naomi and even asks him about Naomi's well-being. These relational complexities speak to wider themes of what constitutes love, as well as how relationships are influenced by social class.
Upon meeting each other, both Ivan and Margaret perceive a palpable sexual tension between them. Ivan wonders what it would be like to kiss her, and considers how awkward it must be for her to face regular unwanted sexual advances from men. Margaret impulsively asks what Ivan is passionate about. The word "passionate" carries both physical ("carnal") and emotional ("internal") connotations, prompting further examination of the pair's interaction. This relates to Ivan's earlier musings on the mind-body problem. Since Rooney includes both Ivan and Margaret's perspectives, the reader can perceive the way they both have involuntary thoughts and bodily reactions that they second-guess. Even when they consummate their attraction, Margaret obsesses over whether it is ethical. Ultimately, she justifies the encounter by leaning into her pleasure at feeling desired.
Peter uses a variety of substances at night to help himself sleep and during the day to function with more ease. At night, he uses diphenhydramine, alcohol, and Xanax to sleep, and takes another Xanax in the morning. His glowing self-certainty and satisfaction gradually wear off by the afternoon, leaving depression and suicidal ideation to seep in. Intense post-breakup nostalgia seems mostly at the root of his suffering. This can be seen when he repeatedly expresses a longing to return to his university days when he first began dating Sylvia. The stream-of-consciousness style that defines Peter's sections immerses readers in his inner world and perceptions. Rooney layers different chronologies in his life, showing how his identity is shaped by memory. This narrative style also helps portray Peter's deteriorating mental state.
Age-gap relationships play a prominent role in the novel, with both brothers engaging in them (albeit in very different circumstances). The ethics of age-gap relationships concern power dynamics, consent, and potential for exploitation. While the characters in Intermezzo are all legal and consenting adults, they all deeply consider the implications of their age differences. For instance, Peter calculates whether he is sexually and financially exploiting Naomi, or if she is emotionally and financially exploiting him (Chapter 3). On the other hand, Margaret tells Ivan that she does not think it is wise for them to deepen their relationship because they are at such different stages of life (Chapter 4). Rooney does not make a definitive moral argument for or against age-gap relationships in this first section. Instead, she uses them as a device for exploring the complexities of relationships, including between siblings (the brothers themselves are ten years apart).
