BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU?

by Sally Rooney

It’s not often that my mom and I disagree about a book. But when we do, it seems important to share that with you. Or else why have a book review with two editors? To clarify, I didn’t hate Beautiful World. I just found myself so strongly annoyed while reading it, that I’m labeling it “not my cup of tea.”

Rooney writes masterfully edgy, modern romance novels. I loved her previous two books. Even in Beautiful World, I enjoyed the plot between two best friends and the men they like. But in between the chapters, which contain the plot, Rooney includes an email exchange between the two girls. In the emails, the girls discuss whether writing fiction can be condoned in a world that needs so much concrete help in so many areas, from poverty to climate change to the pandemic. To me, the emails feel like Rooney is working out her own contradictory feelings about her profession when the world is in crisis on so many fronts. I feel that if she wanted to explore that issue, she could have done it more cleverly—instead of using chapters and chapters of essays posing as fiction. I honestly can’t say, ‘Don’t read this,’ because it’s a good read. But her use of the email device irked me. (Lily)