Rooney, in other words, gives an effective glimpse of life as is experienced by the western, urban, twenty-something facing the 2010s and 2020s.īoth characters struggle with their lot in life, conscious of how such struggle feels wrong in the face of global inequalities and privilege. Seeing such descriptions of banal digital life on paper rather affronts the reader as to just how much of our daily life and communication is mediated through a device. Incorporating the use of text communication without feeling clunky and describing the characters use of technology in mostly seamless ways is no small feat, and its effect is surprisingly potent. In the second instance, the digital texture of Rooney’s world building shines through once again. They are, perhaps, a little insufferable but such a realisation only exposes, at least in my case, the mirror image they can be to a reader at a similar stage of life and emotional maturity. In the first instance, Alice, Eileen, Felix, and Simon effectively take shape in expressive and emotionally sensitive ways.
It is within these personal reflections especially where they share with each other that we get a glimpse into the inner worlds, their longing for meaning, each other, and satisfaction in life.Īs with Rooney’s previous novels, her strengths shine through in characterisation and her descriptions of modern life. Paired alongside Felix and Simon, love interests who both reflect and juxtapose the anxieties of Alice and Eileen, the book recalls the general comings and goings of their life, each second chapter interspersed with a detailed email correspondence between the two. If Rooney is a millennial oracle, then her generation is one haunted by faith longing for a coherent script to follow but simply unable to make the leap.īeautiful World, Where Are You? follows the friendship of Alice (somewhat of a stand-in for Rooney herself) and Eileen, two young Irish creatives grappling with sex, friendship, love, and meaning in a world which they dread is coming to an end. In her latest text Beautiful World, Where Are You? her characters have grown up from the early twenties of her previous books and entered the desolate wasteland of late twenties existentialism. Heralded as the first major millennial novelist, her books have won remarkably wide acclaim and are followed by the series of detractors and critiques that inevitably follow such a rapid rise to success. Sally Rooney is somewhat of a literary sensation.
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