{"id":24026,"date":"2021-09-30T08:58:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T07:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=24026"},"modified":"2021-09-30T09:23:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T08:23:06","slug":"beautiful-world-where-are-you-review-a-love-letter-to-what-we-vividly-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/beautiful-world-where-are-you-review-a-love-letter-to-what-we-vividly-missed\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful World, Where Are You Review: A love letter to what we vividly missed"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the success of her novel turned award-winning TV series, Sally Rooney\u2019s new book is what everyone is\u00a0 talking about, but is it truly worth the hype?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this novel, a famous novelist named Alice meets Felix – who works in a warehouse – and spontaneously\u00a0 asks him to join her on a work trip to Rome. At the same time, in Dublin, her best friend Eileen is trying to\u00a0 get over a break-up by flirting with Simon, her lifelong childhood friend. Through a third-person narrative,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0author tells us the intertwined stories of four young people who are having trouble managing life and its
\nresponsibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would not be a Sally Rooney novel without palpable tension between millennials. They are attracted to\u00a0 each other, have sex, argue, break up and get back together as they worry about the disheartening state the\u00a0 world is in. A merry-go-round of will-they-won\u2019t-they.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no doubt that with <\/span>Beautiful World, Where Are You<\/span><\/i>, Rooney takes her writing a step further. There is\u00a0 something remarkable about the way she writes details without being invasive. Do not read Rooney if you\u00a0 are interested in groundbreaking plots – I find her books to often be plotless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not far from <\/span>Conversations with Friends <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Normal People<\/span><\/i>, her third novel is character-driven. The\u00a0 dialogues are sometimes awkward, which only makes them more relatable. Despite their occasional\u00a0 obnoxiousness, Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon can get under your skin – if you are willing to let them. Who\u00a0 knows, you might even find yourself caring about them as I did.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a series of emails, Alice and Eileen have lengthy conversations about anxiety, beauty, happiness, sex,\u00a0 class, capitalism, faith, language, and disillusion – among other things. I found those exchanges to be a bit\u00a0 tiresome and at times pompous. Regardless, the topics discussed were often thought-provoking, which I quite\u00a0 liked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At some point, Alice discusses contemporary literature and the fact books about relationships are often seen\u00a0 as less important. It seems to be a nod to Rooney\u2019s own style, as if she was acknowledging what her\u00a0 detractors criticise about her writing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Mayo native’s novels have taken the world by storm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beautiful World, Where Are You <\/span><\/i>is filled with those beautifully human interactions we were all craving for\u00a0 while in lockdown – long chats with loved ones we had not seen in ages, and the longing to have someone to\u00a0 exchange with. The novel is a love letter to what we vividly missed over the past year. The protagonists try to\u00a0 find beauty in the ordinary – aren\u2019t we all guilty of this?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading <\/span>Beautiful World, Where Are You <\/span><\/i>almost felt like being a witness to people\u2019s most quiet and intimate\u00a0 moments. To me, it was undeniably well worth the hype.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After the success of her novel turned award-winning TV series, Sally Rooney\u2019s new book is what everyone is\u00a0 talking about, but is it truly worth the hype?\u00a0 In this novel, a famous novelist named Alice meets Felix – who works in a warehouse – and spontaneously\u00a0 asks him to join her on a work trip […]<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":12541,"featured_media":24027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101838,101965,102005],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture-fuinneamh","category-features","category-fuinneamh"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":20,"today_views":0},"views":1778,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Rooney_BWWAY.jpeg","wps_subtitle":"\"It's Sally Rooney's world and we're all just living in it.\" ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24026"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24030,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24026\/revisions\/24030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}