Beautiful World, Where Are You

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (2021) Occasionally, I try to read something that’s contemporary, and popular, and by a young author. I didn’t know anything about Sally Rooney, but I heard that she’s very popular with readers, and she’s Irish, and also, half my age. I chose this book because it’s about a writer—and I often like books about writers. The writer character, here, Alice, is somewhat troubled, and the chapters go back and forth between her and her good friend, Eileen, who works for a magazine, and there is a lot in the form of their email correspondence. I’m not generally a fan of “epistolary” elements in novels, but I liked it a lot in this book—for me it was the most enjoyable part, because both of these characters are highly intelligent—and also searching, troubled, learning—and they expressed themselves very intimately and complexly via their emails—these are good letters! There are two men main characters as well—one, an old friend of them both—and the other, a new friend of Alice’s, met via online dating. He is a real oddball—at first annoying—but he becomes more complex and sympathetic as the book progresses. Something struck me as funny. I was thinking, if an author is known for naturalism and subtlety, you probably read a book entirely differently than if they’re known for a buildup to explosive, shocking violence. I didn’t know in this case—so this character had me worried! And then, if they’re known for sexually explicit content, you’re expecting something else, perhaps. For a while, I was wondering if this was going to turn into a contemporary Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) (a movie I was a little young for, at the time, but caught up with the MAD Magazine version). As it went along, I felt like I slowly got to know the characters more, like people you know in life, and I really did start to care about them all. Some of their concerns (love, relationships), I’m a little through with (perhaps sadly?) by now, but there are other parts of them I related to intensely—I got to know them—the heart of the book for me.

12.5.24