Some of Sally Rooney’s best writing is about power in relationships: who has it and who doesn’t, who wishes they had it, and who has it but doesn’t know they do. Early on in Intermezzo, her fourth novel, she restages a scenario that will be familiar to readers of her debut, Conversations With Friends: A man gives 200 euros to the woman he is having sex with. The woman needs money, and the man has plenty of it. The man carefully does not give the 200 euros to the woman in exchange for sex; in Intermezzo, he transfers her the money and then performs ambivalence about when he’ll see her next, in “an effort to emphasize that he expects nothing in return for his money.” Nevertheless, both parties know they’ll sleep together again. Both know too that he’ll transfer her more money in the future.
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