Book Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

I try to capture my thoughts on this much anticipated release and also talk about it hitting the news this week for reasons that have nothing to do with literary merit.

Here's my question though: Is Sally Rooney a romance writer? No judgement, I just don't read enough romance to recognize the tropes. I get that in many ways everyone owes everything to Jane Austen, but Rooney seems to have strayed away from a purely literary vein and tapped into something about relationships and people's relationships to their relationships. I found it exhausting.

Not sure if I even came close to capturing my experience reading this novel and I certainly went on about it for way too long. Let me know whether you like these kinds of single-issue videos or whether I'd do better to always cover a range of books and keep it eclectic. Cheers.

#SallyRooney #BookReview

[dianabonisch]

Adore you Daniel - I’m a newbie to Guilty Feat and so thrilled to discover you - I have tried and tried to read Sally Rooney without success, so to hear your review restores my faith in humanity - we obviously have similar tastes as I’ve already devoured several of your recommendations and have reserved many more from our library - thank you, thank you.

[StephanieJCohen]

Loved the comment about wanting to find the right critical analysis term .. “it’s F’ing terrible.” I haven’t read it but based on yours and others reviews, i don’t think I would want to.

[jo]

Agree that this is not as good as Normal People. I also found Alice and Felix's relationship totally unconvincing.

[jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

Thanks for reading this, so I don't have to...

[MFSG]

😂😂😂 I have never thrown a book across the room. This book did it to me!

[danicaholly]

Such a perfect video!!! Just loved it.

[MIDDLEoftheBookMARCH]

Absolutely adore this review/rant! 🤣🤣🤣 I read most of Normal People and that would be all of Rooney I will consume. I appreciate your discussion on the political/cultural issues she brought up in her denying the Hebrew translation. Even though you pointed out the small number of sales in the Hebrew language market, her media presence on this issue will overblow any accurate conflict this book in translation would have caused. It’s unfortunate and I wonder if she really thought this through.

[georgiam]

I'm so sorry, Daniel, it's always a disappointment when books we look forward to end up being disappointing. And especially after the fabulous fiction run you've had recently! I really appreciated this review and I thought it fitting it had its own video; I don't always love single review videos but if it's about books that were genuinely mind-blowing or raise legitimate questions for further interrogation of our reading (like this one did), then I'm all for them. Look forward to your Friday Reads tomorrow, take care. (Ps: I also think this is a ghastly title but at least she's admitted in interviews that she's terrible with them and usually comes up with them on the 11th hour before publication with her editor: like you though, I cannot excuse poor punctuation in the title!)

[irena]

I think I’m going to try Normal People. Sounds like I’d enjoy it. I’m usually put off by really popular books for some reason but I’d bet most of them are popular for a reason. Normal People does sound good

[carriem]

I just finished this as an audio book this past week. It was my first and last Rooney book, as I found it to be absolutely insufferable. I kept listening to the dialogue thinking “WHO freaking talks like this?!?!” I consider myself quite liberal, but it seemed like every character was so “woke” as to be unbelievable. I’m 43 though, so maybe I’m just too old.

[bookmark_kl]

I am 80% in, I don't understand what ppl like in this book except for perhaps a couple of passages.

[BookishTexan]

I thought the review was brilliant and will, as a result, encourage you to continue reading Rooney and millennial fiction in general so that a) I don't have to and b) I can hope for more reviews from you like this one.
I have avoided Rooney because something in my nature (a serious flaw actually) makes me rebel against any novelist named "voice of a generation" other that F. Scott Fitzgerald and even he is questionable. I usually read one book by these authors and am unimpressed (probably because the flaw mentioned earlier prejudices me against their work). I have read exactly one book by Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, Brett Easton Ellis, and Jonathan Franzen and have been underwhelmed by all of them even those whose generations correspond or overlap with mine. I suppose this means that I owe Rooney a read so _Normal People_ it is.

[FiReadsBooks]

Totally with you on this Daniel. It’s really disappointing that Rooney has chosen to indulge in performative, political point scoring. What is an irritant to me as an Irish woman, must be incredibly frustrating and offensive to you.

[fiddleleaffiction]

“Jeepers creepers, get over yourselves” 😂 yes! Haha. I’m in my late 20s and I completely agree about this. I do not understand the hype with Sally Rooney.

[AaronReadABook]

I quite enjoyed Mr Salary, but didn't get along with Normal People because I thought it was overly whiny. I did think yes it was a whiney time of life, but as you said in your last video, there are still lots of joyful moments in your teenage years too, I didn't particularly want to read only the bad parts. I find something distasteful about putting in a sensational author character clearly based on yourself in your book and then having them whine about being successful, so I'm not going to pick this one up.

[curioushmm]

i love it when you love a book...but it's a lot of fun when you don't!

[cherylstevens]

Thanks for your insight. And of course you’re so right about the political thing, . Frankly, it’s pretty comical. Great review.

[ameliareads]

Great video! Loved your ranting. God all mighty indeed.
I thought Conversations with Friends was okay, kind of meh and I found Normal People just awful. No interest whatsoever to read anything else by her. It's okay of course that other people love her stories, but I don't get at all why there is so much praise for her writing. It is either over- or underwritten in my opinion, but nothing special at all.
I also want a question mark if there is one needed.
Like you I am obviously too old for millennial fiction.

[Raulgermont]

From you r telling, it sounds like this novel has every cliché in the book (!). It won't be on my list.