![]() The structure is awkward and cold, describing each character from a significant distance, hinting at, but not revealing, truth. The book uses a combination of voyeuristic third-person narration and interspersed emails to take readers through the romantic lives of former college roommates Alice and Eileen, who are now approaching 30. While her other protagonists sincerely attempt love and politics, Rooney’s new characters trivialize both. “Beautiful World, Where Are You?”, which was published early this month, failed to live up to the lucidity of Rooney’s earlier novels. ![]() Rooney is the novelist I go to when I want to be seen and validated, so waiting for her highly anticipated third novel was like waiting for an old friend to return home. She takes seriously the kind of stories that are often deemed frivolous merely because their subject matter (girls) is not seen as a viable cultural subset for which to make art, manifested in the phrase “chick lit.” Art which portrays female perspectives - especially young, contemporary female perspectives - is often viewed as separate and illegitimate. Her first two novels, “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People,” catalog the romantic and intellectual obsessions of her college-aged subjects with rare tenderness and precision. ![]() Reading Sally Rooney is like finally being compensated for being a young woman. ![]()
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