sally rooney beautiful world where are you review

Though they are written well, I think the emails go on for too long and wonder if some of the content might be more at home in a book of essays. I like the structure of the novel – it alternates the third person narrative chapters with wonderings about the endurance of civilisation and the tragedy of plastic in the form of email correspondence between Alice and Eileen, our heroines. But here we are.)ĭublin, where Beautiful World, Where Are You is partly set. I enjoy reading about the lives of writers (which Rooney and her characters would no doubt find pathetic. Alice was sort of interesting – she is a writer struggling with fame and the value of art.

It was entertaining enough and I’m a sucker for deadpan narration. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy Beautiful World, Where Are You. They are obviously very intelligent and well-read but for me that’s outweighed by their self-important self-hatred. I find Rooney’s characters annoying and uninteresting. How can I enjoy the writing but loathe the characters? Not loathe in a Lady Macbeth, Hannah Horvath, Walter White sort of way. Reading Sally Rooney is a double-edged sword for me. Rooney’s women have a submissiveness to them that I don’t enjoy spending time around. Here I concede: this is a competent novel but personally I just don’t connect with the characters very much. Once or twice before I have been foolish enough to confess that I think something about a book is objectively weak. Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You (Faber & Faber: 2021, 9780571365425)

Sally rooney beautiful world where are you review