Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

 

Amy   

fiction

Alice, a successful author recovering from a mental breakdown in Dublin, meets Felix on Tinder. After a less than stellar date, they meet again by chance and Alice invites him to join her on a book tour in Rome.  Meanwhile, Alice’s college roommate, Eileen, seems to be struggling with her complicated relationship with her childhood friend, Simon.  Alice and Eileen write emails to each other explaining their lives and also sharing thoughts and philosophies about current topics and the state of the world.

Ugh. 

THIS WAS THE 2021 GOODREADS CHOICE BEST FICTION NOVEL??!! I have a major problem with the Goodreads Choice Awards. How can a novel win a category when it doesn’t even earn an average rating of 4 stars (out of 5) on Goodreads?  I do not respect the Goodreads Choice Awards. I feel that their website's ratings are a much more accurate assessment of the quality of books. Generally, if a novel has 4 stars and above, I either like it or can see why lots of people liked it. This one had 3.63 stars. I did not like it nor can I fathom why so many people voted for this one.

Beautiful World, Where Are You has a minimal plot. I suppose it’s supposed to highlight the mundane struggles of people in their late twenties/early thirties in terms of their lack of perceived value in society and their low personal assessment of their achievements. The characters in this book are socially awkward, have poor communication skills (especially considering the two main characters are writers), and lack meaningful relationships. They don’t know what they want out of life or with whom they would like to spend it or how to go about getting any contentment. Felix ends up being the only person who deals in reality on a regular basis.

The emails between Alice and Eileen are simply avenues for Sally Rooney to pontificate, or hold court, about her musings. To me, it comes off as a pretentious way to publish her opinions in the guise of a novel. It is as if she wants readers to say to themselves, “Wow! How enlightened she is. What a gift she has for articulation of the current problems with the world!”. Paleeze.  It felt like the author built the novel around these monologues and I did not appreciate its crafting.

And then, between all the emails and difficult relationships, she includes paragraphs about absolutely nothing.  And I mean that literally. She includes details that are meaningless to the forward motion of any sort of story line and add no entertainment or educational value whatsoever. Here’s an example:

“…Felix took out his phone and flicked over to the camera app. The phone was several years old and for some reason opening the camera app caused the music to skip and then switch off. He removed his headphones irritably and took a picture of the castle. For a few seconds then he held the phone out at arm’s length, headphones dangling loose over the side of the bridge, and it was not clear from this gesture whether he was trying to see the existing image better, getting a new angle in order to take a different photograph, or simply thinking about letting the device slip soundlessly out of his hand and into the river. He stood there with his arm outstretched and a grave-looking expression on his face, but maybe he was just frowning under the glare of sunlight. Without taking another photograph, he wound up the headphones, pocketed the phone and walked on.”

WHO CARES???!!!!  There was no reason for this paragraph to be included! It brought nothing to the novel....no character development, no story advancement, no reader education, no description of the setting. 

Rooney also has something against using quotation marks and commas correctly. I am left attempting to find anything nice to say, any crumb I can feel any enjoyment about, any character that I liked, or any situation that was of interest to me.  I will say that I agreed with some of her musings in the emails. But the way they were presented felt forced. If it weren’t for book club, I would not have finished this novel. Yes, it had a hopeful ending so I’ll give it that. But when I am relieved to finish reading a book, you can bet I didn’t enjoy it. I’m very happy to leave these characters behind.