The Complexity Of Human Relations

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her.

In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young — but life is catching up with them.

They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart.

They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in.

Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something?

Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

What I Liked About This Book

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You doesn’t have an intricate or complex plot.

If you tell anyone what happens in it, they might even think that it’s a boring book and not worth their time.

I had heard a lot about Sally Rooney’s books before reading this one. I wasn’t expecting much to happen in it, but rather that her writing would make it interesting enough for me to read.

I was not disappointed.

There is something about the way Rooney tells this story.

It’s not so much the characters that make this book interesting and enjoyable to read — like in Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, — but rather the writing.

The way Rooney writes the characters’ interactions keeps you engaged and makes it hard to put the book down.

The writing

Sally Rooney writes about the banal in a fascinating way.

At first glance, her stories are not that interesting, but as you read them closely, you can see the art behind them.

I love the level of detail in her writing and how she writes her characters.

Rooney writes in such detail that when you’re first reading the book, some descriptions might seem unnecessary. But in the end, they make for a deeper understanding of the characters and the world they live in.

It gets to a point that, as you’re reading it, you can clearly see the character's movements in as much detail as if you were watching a movie.

“She pulled the dress down off her shoulders, taking deep hard breaths in through her nose and releasing them between her lips, and then put on a striped blue nightdress. The noises from downstairs were quieter now, the voices intermingled.” — Chapter 28

These simple details are what make Sally Rooney’s writing so engaging. It’s as if you’re there, with the characters, watching it all happen.

The precise detail in her writing makes the story more immersive, and her characters feel realistic, each with a unique voice.

“Felix took out his phone and flicked over to the camera app. The phone was several years old and for some reason opening the camera app caused the music to skip and then switch off. He removed his headphones irritably and took a picture of the castle.” — Chapter 9

Another important thing to point out about Rooney’s writing is that she doesn’t use quotation marks.

At first, it might seem hard to differentiate the dialogue from the narration, but Rooney writes characters with such a unique voice that it becomes easy to follow along.

Let’s talk about feelings

I love me a good heart-to-heart conversation, and this book is full of them.

From the long ranting emails Alice and Eileen send to each other, to the late-night conversations they all exchange with one another, this book reflects on the importance of talking about your feelings to solve conflicts and get closer to each other.

The long emails

Through the emails the characters exchange with each other, the reader can enter deeper into the character’s minds than if they were simply narrating their thoughts.

We not only find out what’s on their minds, but also their thoughts on deep and important topics such as life, religion, sexuality, and maternity.

But besides all that, we also see how the characters present themselves to others. Especially to their best friends.

Even though they are best friends, we see a hint of judgment and fear of judgment when they share their opinions and life choices.

So the emails not only bring a deeper understanding of the characters individually but also their relationship with each other.

The characters and their relationships

The characters in this book were all deeply flawed and humane. Which is my favorite kind.

Yes, it is always nice to read nice stories about nice characters. Lovely people who do good things and treat everyone with kindness.

But not everyone is like that. And I’m more and more interested in reading about the complex and grey parts of being a human in this world.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up on cute and mushy books. I’m simply choosing to read more about the complexity of human relationships.

And this book is all about that.

It’s about normal people, living normal lives, in a normal world.

None of them are perfect, but they are trying their best to deal with what life throws their way and be happy.

Although their relationships hit some bumps, they are always ready to fix them and give it another go.

This book focuses on the fact that everyone is going through something.

Everyone has problems in their lives. Things they are still trying to come to terms with that explain why they act the way they do.

Rooney doesn’t use this in the book as an excuse for their actions, but rather to understand and be compassionate towards other people.

My favorite chapter is chapter 28. Not much happens in it, but it’s extremely descriptive, and you feel you’re there with these characters.

You feel their emotions and see through them.

It was such a fascinating chapter to read.

The setting

As someone who lives in Ireland and loves Dublin, reading a book about characters walking around the roads that I’ve walked and using expressions I know so well, made me feel closer to the story.

It was a different experience than I’m used to. Especially when one character started criticizing Dublin’s skyline.

“One of the problems is that Dublin is, and I mean literally and topographically, flat — so that everything has to take place on a single plane. Other cities have metro systems, which add depth, and steep hills or skyscrapers for height, but Dublin has only short squat grey buildings and trams that run along the street. And it has no courtyards or roof gardens like continental cities, which at least break up the surface — if not vertically, then conceptually. Have you thought about it this way before?” — Chapter 2

No. I had not.

Now it is very much present in my mind as I walk around Dublin and realize it’s true. Dublin is a bit flat. But I still love it.

Final Thoughts

I loved Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney.

It’s such a refreshing book that makes you think about humanity, life, and relationships.

It makes you question what’s really important in life. Which is something that these past years of covid and lockdowns brought us.

It reflects the idea that although it is important to be conscious of important things happening in the world, such as climate change; it is also important and normal to be thinking about friendships, love, and sex.

“Maybe we’re just born to love and worry about the people we know, and to go on loving and worrying even when there are more important things we should be doing. And if that means the human species is going to die out, isn’t it in a way a nice reason to die out, the nicest reason you can imagine?”

If you’re interested in reading this book, get it here.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read this book and what you think of it. Did you enjoy it?

In need of book recommendations? Subscribe to my newsletter and get an email every week with book recommendations, book quotes, and so much more.