Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Top positive review

Doesn’t stray far from the author’s other two novels

Reviewed in Australia on 30 September 2021

If you are a fan of Irish millennial author, Sally Rooney, and her other two novels, Conversation with friends, and, Normal people, you are probably in for a treat. That is, unless you felt that these two works said everything you wanted hear on love, friendship and living as an intellectual, hip, 20 something in Ireland in our current times. All in all, the latest novel is an easy read. The style is economical and lean, like a contemporary Hemingway. It probably plays to Rooney’s strength in not straying to far thematically or narratively from Rooney’s other works. Worth a read.

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Didn't get all the hyper about this one.

Reviewed in Australia on 15 September 2021

My first taste of Sally Rooney and sadly, probably my last. I didn't enjoy this book at all. I found it long winded and aimless (I feel like I was missing the point of it all?) Characters were obnoxious and not even likeable so I struggled to take to any of them. Those long winded emails were a drag to read! Started losing patience halfway in, and it didn't get any better. Ended up skimming the rest just to finish it. Here's a quick summary - Four people: they like each other, don't like each other, are intimate, then not intimate, and somewhat depressed. And that's it. Ending didn't offer any resolve or bring anything new.

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From Australia

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Two quarters of a whole

Reviewed in Australia on 12 February 2022

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I enjoyed the intimate nature of this book and the way perspectives can be shaped by the characters' observations and disclosures. No one can really know anyone else unless we are privy to their inner dialogues, however reliable those actually are. Eileen and Alice are two seemingly troubled young women, who rely to a perhaps unhealthy degree on each other and the validation of their partners, Simon and Felix. But one is left wondering - are the male characters not similarly troubled and angst-ridden? Felix reveals as much in his own straightforward way. Simon, though, comes off as a saintly caricature. I feel this book would have been even better if all four characters were afforded the same interior perspectives granted to Alice and Eileen. The novel could still maintain its elusiveness - Alice and Eileen are still able to surpise and shock each other when they actually meet in person. Giving Simon and Felix inner lives could have yielded a richer exploration of character and motivation without overwhelming the narrative or wrecking its sense of the unknowables and multitudes we all possess and for the most part guard. StilI, I was utterly absorbed throughout.

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Janette Sheen

Absorbing, thoughtful with superb observations of both people and their surroundings

Reviewed in Australia on 13 December 2021

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In my reading, this is a book that not only explores relationships and their meaning but various approaches the ‘30 somethings’ take to the issues in living and in the world at large.

About two thirds of the way into the book I became so absorbed in what Sally Rooney was saying that I didn’t even pick up the phone when it rang

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Hamid

a must read

Reviewed in Australia on 23 October 2021

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An inspiring and absolutely amazing book. It is a must read from a phenomenal writer

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Levi Huxton

Sex, friendship and the end of civilisation

Reviewed in Australia on 12 September 2021

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Alice and Eileen think a lot about sex and friendship. Now thirty, they worry they’re obsessing about sex and friendship while civilisation crumbles.

In emails pinged between Dublin and County Mayo, they write articulately about the end of the world – inequity, greed, climate change, pollution, celebrity – and their lot in its midst – as women, as writers, as members of a specific class. Perhaps sex and friendship are the only things that matter since civilisation is ending and even as grown-ups, they are powerless to do much about it.

Alice made it rich and famous as a novelist, but success has only hollowed out her sense of self-worth. In Felix, a working-class lad who – at first - looks unlikely to treat her well, she seeks the proof of her worthlessness. Meanwhile Eileen struggles to find purpose or sustenance as an editor in a literary journal. Panicked by stasis, she’s not sure she deserves the love of childhood friend Simon.

In between their epistolary conversations are chapters in which Alice, Eileen, Felix and Simon’s actions are described with curious detachment. Rooney applies her immense gifts to charting their cerebral and physical connections without an ounce of ironic distance. In treating her characters’ concerns with the utmost seriousness, she imbues those concerns with deeper significance.

Could the rare and precious relationships we sustain with those who truly wish us well add-up to nothing less than the sum of the beauty in the world? And if so, how high the stakes in keeping them alive! Were these relationships to rupture so too would the safety net over the bottomless despair Alice and Eileen glimpse each time they are alone.

The scrutiny Rooney’s been under – just thirty, three acclaimed bestsellers in four years - would drive any sensible writer to reclusion, or even to stop publishing. This would be our immense loss. The work this most parallels, for me, is J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, not just for its thoughtful letters and the formative arguments therein, but for its preoccupation with crafting a meaningful identity in a flawed world where authentic beauty is fleeting and ego constantly threatens to swallow us whole.

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From other countries

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beyond the hype, a very fine novel indeed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2021

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Not quite sure where to begin, only that I very nearly didn't bother to read this novel because of the relentless hype around it. I find it all so toxic. To books, to writers, readers too. I was not a great fan of Normal People, thought it okay, but hyped. BWWAY is altogether different -- delicious, clever, wry, witty -- and left me with that rare tipsy feeling I sometimes get on finishing the book. I enjoyed it *enormously*.

35 people found this helpful

Andrew Vermes

Beautiful writing is worth some effort

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2021

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This is literature of the highest quality, though I have a feeling that some fans of Normal People will be disappointed. Mirroring the confused relationships of the characters Rooney lays bare the confusion of our modern world with its meaningless glitter sitting next to extreme poverty. If you prefer straightforward love stories some of this will come across as preachy. Pay attention and you'll be rewarded. A couple of reviewers mention they read this in hours. This is worth taking time over. The last book that I found as beautiful was The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard over 10 years ago (and I read a lot).

19 people found this helpful

Lysistrata

It`s always there, in all places, the beautiful world.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2021

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This is a surprisingly theological book. It`s not really about what happens but about the texture of people`s lives and what makes them worth living. It is reminiscent of the 18th century epistolary novels, which here become lengthy emails full of weighty subjects. The four main characters are in their late 20s, a time when decisions have to be made. Simon has his Christian faith and is in love with Eileen. Alice has her literary career and is in love with Felix. Felix has Tinder and his mates. Eileen has angst over the state of the world. Eileen writes, "It seems vulgar, decadent, even epistemically violent, to invest energy in the trivialities of sex and friendship when human civilisation is facing collapse." This would be insufferable and tedious if it were not for the fact that all Eileen really wants to do is get in bed with Simon. Alice writes of "relational formlessness and experimental affective bonds" when all she really wants is to climb on top of Felix. Surely this is comic. The tenderness of the sexual encounters is beautifully written.

I love chapter 16 where Eileen has a kind of epiphany: "If I believed in God I would just want to thank him every day, for everything." I love chapter 23 mainly because of Simon`s love for Eileen which he finds difficult to express. As with Sally Rooney`s two previous novels the reader is entranced by the beauty of her writing and also wants to bang heads together so that love can be enjoyed and celebrated rather than having to navigate so many misunderstandings. They all know that love, care and friendship are all that really matters in life. Eileen writes: "What if the meaning of life is not eternal progress toward some unspecified goal (but is) just to live and be with other people."

The writing tails off a bit after chapter 26 and I start to get irritated by the way Eileen makes animal noises and Simon`s ears go red when they make love. Also by the way we have to be told what everyone is wearing all the time. What makes this book special for me are the references to the mystic vision, the idea that there is not unreality but a hidden reality of goodness and love beneath all things : the beautiful world.

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MRC

Beautiful and enduring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2021

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I loved this book. Rooney has a perfect talent bringing a realism to the page, in terms of her characters and also their surroundings. I rarely have felt so connected to a novel as I have with this one. In fact the last time I connected so strongly with a novel was her previous work, Normal People, which is one of my favourite novels. Rooney manages to convey the emotions and strifes of the characters so powerfully that I am brought to the brink of sadness and joy myself, as I read along.
Beautiful World is about two friends, Alice and Eileen, and each of their close acquaintances, Simon and Felix, and how the dynamic between the two girls in particular develops over the course of a year or so. As issues between come and go, life goes on, relationships build and fall apart and in the letters they exchange between each other, they question the state of the world, their part in and their responsibilities for it.
While this book doesn’t carry quite the same emotional heft as Normal People, I actually felt more in tune with it, particularly in the letter correspondence chapters. Rooney brings forth political, ethical, religious and environmental dilemmas for the characters, and the reader, to ponder and explore. I found the letters to be a refreshing break away from the rest of the plot and oddly comforting, even though I sometimes would not agree with the characters statements, it was still nice to see that these things that I have often thought about are considered by others too, _or_ as the case may be, maybe I should be contemplating some of the points they discuss.
It is very hard to read this book and not look at it like a fictional autobiography of Rooney herself. Alice is a world famous, Irish writer who catapulted to fame after publishing two highly successful novels, and struggling to get out a third. She went to college in Dublin but now lives in the West of the Ireland. There are probably more similarities in there that I cannot think of right now.
I don’t think this is a flaw with the novel. In fact I loved it. I felt it gave us an insight into her mind. It can easy to get caught up so much in a novel that you assume the writer themselves must believe the same things as their characters, but surely in this instance, when the reflection is so similar, this assumption is warranted… to an extent at least. I must concede, Rooney actually warns us about assuming such familiarity with the author, again, through Alice, and suggests that just because we _feel_ like we know them, does not mean that we do and that all we truly see of them in a book is a moment in time.
This book brought up so many thoughts and emotions that it has really struck a chord with me, and though the painful joy and heartache that came with Normal People is slightly diminished here, the emotions stirred by Beautiful World were no less enduring.

3 people found this helpful

Esmie

Internationally acclaimed young author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2021

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This is a groundbreaking book from a new author who puts her own spin on the foibles and strengths of modern relationships (both groupings and coupledom.) A unique, aware writer who's pared back style speaks volumes of the complex processes needed to achieve such 'simplicity'.
This book is still being read by me! Savouring every moment. It was delivered on time,in perfect condition and at a competetive price.

3 people found this helpful

Mezzy Maestro

Standing up for justice isn't always easy - but Sally is the epitome of courage!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2021

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Don't be fooled by all the 'recent' negative reviews of the book - it is nothing more then a political backlash. I commend Sally for standing up against Apartheid and the infrastructure that underpins the regime.

5 people found this helpful

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