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A review by unalasa
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
5.0
First of all, I made a playlist for this book. If you want to imagine what it feels like to read Beautiful World, listen to this and find out.
Second—now for the review.
Sally Rooney did it again! Absolutely loved this. It’s also interesting that while reading this, I stumbled upon a reddit discussion calling Rooney out on basically writing the same book over and over again. Which is technically true, but I can’t help this one was on purpose.
There was a recurring theme of a writer criticizing the modern novel (and therefore her own writing as well) for placing the same love and relationships plot in new settings. All the while very Rooney-esque friendships and romance unravel. I can’t help but feel this was Rooney’s defense speech: yes, I know I write about this all the time. But that’s just because these are the most memorable parts of life.
“After all, when people are lying on their deathbeds, don’t they always start talking about their spouses and children? And isn’t death just the apocalypse in the first person? So in that sense, there is nothing bigger than what you so derisively call ‘breaking up or staying together’ (!), because at the end of our lives, when there’s nothing left in front of us, it’s still the only thing we want to talk about. [..] And I love that about humanity, and in fact it’s the very reason I root for us to survive – because we are so stupid about each other.”
And third, just a thing I'd like to note about Sally Rooney books in general—as soon as I'm done reading, I already miss them. This being my 3rd Rooney book, I noticed I kept dragging the last 20 pages out just so I wouldn't have to say goodbye to these characters.
Second—now for the review.
Sally Rooney did it again! Absolutely loved this. It’s also interesting that while reading this, I stumbled upon a reddit discussion calling Rooney out on basically writing the same book over and over again. Which is technically true, but I can’t help this one was on purpose.
There was a recurring theme of a writer criticizing the modern novel (and therefore her own writing as well) for placing the same love and relationships plot in new settings. All the while very Rooney-esque friendships and romance unravel. I can’t help but feel this was Rooney’s defense speech: yes, I know I write about this all the time. But that’s just because these are the most memorable parts of life.
“After all, when people are lying on their deathbeds, don’t they always start talking about their spouses and children? And isn’t death just the apocalypse in the first person? So in that sense, there is nothing bigger than what you so derisively call ‘breaking up or staying together’ (!), because at the end of our lives, when there’s nothing left in front of us, it’s still the only thing we want to talk about. [..] And I love that about humanity, and in fact it’s the very reason I root for us to survive – because we are so stupid about each other.”
And third, just a thing I'd like to note about Sally Rooney books in general—as soon as I'm done reading, I already miss them. This being my 3rd Rooney book, I noticed I kept dragging the last 20 pages out just so I wouldn't have to say goodbye to these characters.