By Carmen Lebar
Beautiful World, Where Are You is the latest novel by Sally Rooney after the massive success of Normal People. It details the life of Eileen, Alice, Felix, and Simon as they try to understand their relationships to each other as well as themselves. In quintessential Sally Rooney form and structure, Rooney creates a vivid and colourful world where even the mundane is extraordinary. However, there are many parts of this novel that unfortunately didn’t work for me. I went into this novel hoping to connect with the characters and story, but a lot of it fell flat. My biggest critique of this novel is that it read like Rooney was trying to write two different books into one.
The novel interchanges between first-person narration (written in email format) and third-person narration. The juxtaposition of these narratives is very harsh and does not flow well when reading. These chapters touch upon interesting topics such as fame, Marxism, writing, and much more. Yet, with these chapters, the writing becomes increasingly formal even though the narrators are writing personal emails to their best friend. It felt strange reading knowing that these characters are very close. While these emails reflect the interests and concerns of two of the main characters, Rooney unfortunately writes in a rather formal, almost academic, tone that begs the question: why wasn’t a collection of essays written instead?
I enjoyed learning about the characters in this novel, but it was hard to connect with them when reading these emails. If Rooney had focused more on the platonic and romantic relationships, I would have enjoyed this novel much more. There were many great moments where Rooney established very interesting character-driven prose, and there’s no doubt that Rooney is a talented writer, but I felt the emails unintentionally took away from the character development. For example, some characters identify as bisexual and there’s no exploration of this identity with these queer characters. What does it mean for them? How does it affect their livelihood? There’s also a pivotal moment for a character that Rooney glosses over that I felt was one of the most interesting moments in the novel. Adding extra details and expanding on moments would have made the novel more complex and engaging.
In Beautiful World, Where Are You, Rooney wrote some beautiful and dynamic prose. The characters all have intimate moments and characteristics only Rooney could write. I think this novel would have benefitted from staying as a third-person narration and had these email correspondences reworked or removed to create a collection of essays. I’m sure Rooney enthusiasts would love to read any nonfiction from her, especially concerning her writing process and struggles with fame. Unfortunately, the novel didn’t work for me. I think this novel would be great for anyone who loves Rooney’s work or if you enjoy contemporary fiction written by women. I still look forward to the next book Rooney releases.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. Please note that Carmen has recently acquired a new position with Penguin Random House Canada. Her thoughts and opinions are her own, but for transparency we'd like to share this detail.