Beautiful World, Where Are You

I was an early reader of Irish writer Sally Rooney, before she shot to stratospheric fame. I was offered an ARC of CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS, not expecting to love it as I did. It’s not that I don’t enjoy stories about Millennials--it’s just that sometimes there’s too much navel gazing or whining and stuck-ness in issues that can make my eyes roll. But Sally Rooney? She’s a delight! Navel gazing in Rooney’s book is organic and watchful. She writes her literary opuses as if they were screenplays. I’m not talking about just the filmic quality of the narrative. But in BEAUTIFUL WORLD, as in all three of her novels to date, you could pluck the breathtaking images right from the words themselves. The dialogue, characters, and story are three dimensional, and every scene pops and delivers and allows you to interpret on your own terms. BEAUTIFUL WORLD touches on themes of beauty, celebrity, social media, mental health, friendship, love, the continuum between friendship and love, and the fluidity of attraction. As always, I feel that the author connects deeply with the reader as she writes. Even when the tone is wry, tense, or accusing between characters, I feel that Rooney’s people are always evolving and in motion. Rooney isn’t rigid but she is decisive. Her cast comes with an implied background of unease, or lofty principles that they themselves have problems achieving. They are searching for love and identity, and also a culture class that they can brandish or even hide behind. This new novel revolves around two best friends, Alice and Eileen, and the men most important in their lives at the time. As in all Rooney’s books, one character is a writer (sometimes she has more than one). Alice has achieved literary fame after two novels (like Rooney, although I won’t make the mistake of thinking Alice is based on Rooney), and then had a mental breakdown. It is obvious that she isn’t that egocentric about her fame; in fact, she chooses a boyfriend much less intelligent than her who doesn’t even read books. Her typical form of communication with her best friend, Eileen, is email. They contain some scintillating content and background info, and move both character and plot along, or give the reader a bridge between times. So when Eileen and Alice eventually see each other again (Eileen is living in Dublin, Alice by the sea), you just know there’s a climax coming. (Eileen is actually living in the house Alice abandoned when she went into treatment). You feel the tension. And when I said that her novels are like cinema? I think this one is more theater, like a play. You’ll see when you read it, but the scenes usually include little details about the environment when a character is doing something, such as: “…sitting on her bed scrolling on her phone… On the floor, a discarded cardigan, her swimsuit with its straps tangled, sandals with the buckles hanging open. On the bedside table a lamp with a pleated pink shade.” The stage is set a particular way. It’s like seeing a play, where you are riveted to the stage, and the play and your life have merged. Simon and Eileen have known each other since childhood (he’s 5 years older than her) and their relationship was Platonic for many years, although Simon has always been hard to pin down. Felix is Alice’s new boyfriend, and there are a few stunners of information about him that are revealed early. If you are a Rooney fan, you’ve already read the book and are just checking out what other readers are saying. Is Alice really Sally? No, of course not, but it is a little bit meta-, as Alice does criticize people on Twitter for judging her life and her boyfriend, as if they know her. (I imagine many celebs feel this way.) Her readers do act on social media as if they are involved in Alice’s life--like her friend or cousin. Shows you how creepy we can be. We all do it sometimes--judge someone famous for making certain choices with their lives! But, Rooney doesn’t act superior when she writes a scene this way. Her nuanced portraits are unguarded, even when her characters are leery or calculating. Rooney mesmerizes when she points out their darker sides. What I wanted to say is that if you are already a Rooney fan, then there’s nothing I can tell you other than to read it, and you won’t be disappointed. If you are new to her, prepare to love her or hate her. She writes her familiar geography--Dublin. Her characters are mostly about her age, and like her character, Alice, she writes about friends and lovers. Rooney does that SO WELL! That is why she is so beloved. Scenes are vivid, like her characters, and I become invested in them. So when they feel a cleaving, so will I. And most Rooney readers will, too. She is wise, piercing, and intuitive with the narrative form. Her stories are convincing because the texture feels like authentic material. Rooney will follow a character into a murky tunnel and come out the other side with the bright sun shining or peeling off skin. She decides and we interpret. Or she can say it all in a few keen words, taking the context and subtexting the hell out of it. It’s almost always through the characters, like a play. Rooney doesn’t describe geography except to add mood/atmosphere to the story. Settings are in a room or a space, indoors or out, where you can feel the boundaries when they are crossed. Her characters are urgent with the world they live in, fearful and fearless simultaneously. And constantly thinking, feeling, desiring. “It was like God had put his hand on my head and filled me with the most intense desire I had ever felt, not desire for another person, but desire to bring something into being that had never existed before…I knew what I had to do, and I did it, that was all.” I’m so thrilled that Rooney has this talent to share with the world. I’m a superfan, a wide-eyed votary, so I can get away with saying…gulp…it’s a more beautiful world because Sally Rooney’s talent is in it.

It was a good experience reading this book. I loved the characters even though they did get on my nerves by the end. I think that’s by design, actually, and due to the fact that there is little to no plot which I also think is by design. Regardless, I engaged with the book emotionally and found glimpses of myself in these characters. Wonderful prose which I think gets overlooked these days, but I definitely appreciated it.

I liked the earnestness in this book to find and resolve meaning in our modern world. Any book that does that is worthy of respect. But in nearly ever other facet, I thought Beautiful World fell short of Rooney's previous work, especially Normal People, which I think is a modern masterpiece (and for reference, some of my faves include Farewell To Arms, Giovanni's Room, Slaughterhouse Five, The Recognitions, Emma, and The Idiot). In Beautiful World, I feel the writing first and foremost is flat. Past tense distant 3rd person killed the magic. I was audibly shocked at how flat and predictable some of her writing was at times, and even repeatedly had the thought that Rooney herself seemed burnt out. Characters were hard to relate to, unlikable often. Sex scenes felt forced and gimmicky and just boring (except for one scene, *spoilers*, first time for Alice and Felix). It was a bad feeling being more excited for the emails than the narration. But a lot of those emails did have thought provoking ideas. I wanted to love this book, and again, I respect the hell out of Rooney's attempt. But it just didn't ignite the magical intimacy that great books always do.

5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ #andreeareviews This is my second Sally Rooney book (after which I bought everything she ever wrote). The book tackles the complexity of relationships and mental health while living in a system not meant to support our well-being. The friendship between Alice Kelleher, a successful Irish novelist, and Eileen Lyon, an editor at a literary magazine, is at the centre of the book. After having a mental breakdown, Alice retreated out of the public eye to a vast rectory house on the Irish coast. Living on her own, Alice goes on a few dates with a local she met on Tinder, Felix, and the two start a relationship. They are an unexpected pair: Felix works in a shipping warehouse after making a mess of his life, barely making it from salary to salary; Alice is a wildly famous novelist. Their different social status appears in their conversations and interaction, being, at first, an area of conflict (and maybe a subtle sense of inferiority from Felix). Meanwhile, Eileen lives in Dublin and has a complicated relationship with his long-time friend, Simon. Their current relationship can be best described as a complicated situationship. Eileen is recovering from a breakup in a long-term relationship by seeking solace in Simon’s company, who is her oldest friend. On the other hand, Simon has a habit of dating much younger women. Eileen and Simon have been friends since childhood. She considers the possibility of dating Simon, who has been by her side, supporting her through all her hardship since she was a teenager. However, she doesn’t want to endanger their friendship and deep connection. The relationships between the four people grow throughout the book; the characters themselves grow and transform and find themselves or find meaning in their lives. There are deep conversations, difficulties in dealing with intimacy, socially tense situations, and even self-sabotage of own desires and relationships. There are fights, reconciliations, cold interactions, and emotionally charged situations. The friendship between Alice and Eileen is complicated. They met in college, and while Eileen struggles to find meaning and passion in her writing, Alice has found fame. However, Alice also struggles with mental health issues and an inability to have a social life. Their interactions are filled with tension - Alice complaining about the side effects of success to a struggling Eileen, whose pay is ridiculous at her current job. They agree that our world is complicated and downright hostile from multiple perspectives (emotions and mental health, climate change, economics, and morality). While Alice is far from Dublin, they exchange numerous letters. However, Eileen only visits Alice months later. There is tension between them, hidden under their social criticism (they debate everything from politics to religion). In the style that got me hooked in Conversation with Friends, Rooney continues her deep conversation and philosophical analysis of the current world. I enjoyed the correspondence between Alice and Eileen more than the plot of the book per se. They are beautiful prose, and raw, soul-baring self-dialogue, that tackle complex modern topics with utmost sincerity.

Still reading this but it’s promising. I love Rooney!

This was my third Sally Rooney book and she never disappoints. I love the way her characters are written, the plot is basic but represents so many problems and issues we go through on a day to day and it was lovely seeing the characters evolve so much from beginning to end

Excelente autora. No es la mejor de sus obras, pero la relación entre los personajes te envuelve.

I love the writing style of sally in all of her books. This book has a interesting way of connecting two storys and i got caught in the book immediatly. So big recommendation from my side

I loved this book. Rooney has a perfect talent bringing a realism to the page, in terms of her characters and also their surroundings. I rarely have felt so connected to a novel as I have with this one. In fact the last time I connected so strongly with a novel was her previous work, Normal People, which is one of my favourite novels. Rooney manages to convey the emotions and strifes of the characters so powerfully that I am brought to the brink of sadness and joy myself, as I read along. Beautiful World is about two friends, Alice and Eileen, and each of their close acquaintances, Simon and Felix, and how the dynamic between the two girls in particular develops over the course of a year or so. As issues between come and go, life goes on, relationships build and fall apart and in the letters they exchange between each other, they question the state of the world, their part in and their responsibilities for it. While this book doesn’t carry quite the same emotional heft as Normal People, I actually felt more in tune with it, particularly in the letter correspondence chapters. Rooney brings forth political, ethical, religious and environmental dilemmas for the characters, and the reader, to ponder and explore. I found the letters to be a refreshing break away from the rest of the plot and oddly comforting, even though I sometimes would not agree with the characters statements, it was still nice to see that these things that I have often thought about are considered by others too, _or_ as the case may be, maybe I should be contemplating some of the points they discuss. It is very hard to read this book and not look at it like a fictional autobiography of Rooney herself. Alice is a world famous, Irish writer who catapulted to fame after publishing two highly successful novels, and struggling to get out a third. She went to college in Dublin but now lives in the West of the Ireland. There are probably more similarities in there that I cannot think of right now. I don’t think this is a flaw with the novel. In fact I loved it. I felt it gave us an insight into her mind. It can easy to get caught up so much in a novel that you assume the writer themselves must believe the same things as their characters, but surely in this instance, when the reflection is so similar, this assumption is warranted… to an extent at least. I must concede, Rooney actually warns us about assuming such familiarity with the author, again, through Alice, and suggests that just because we _feel_ like we know them, does not mean that we do and that all we truly see of them in a book is a moment in time. This book brought up so many thoughts and emotions that it has really struck a chord with me, and though the painful joy and heartache that came with Normal People is slightly diminished here, the emotions stirred by Beautiful World were no less enduring.