Beautiful World, Where are you

Beautiful World, Where Are You

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Literary fiction 

Author: Sally Rooney

Favorite quotes: One of many 

“Alice was extremely rude to him all evening, called his religious beliefs evil and also said his wrist watch was ugly. For some reason Simon seemed to find this Behavior amusing and even endearing.” (Rooney 28)

“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? Because when we should have been reorganizing the distribution of the world's resources and transitioning collectively to a sustainable economic model, we were worrying about sex and friendship instead…And I love that about humanity, and in fact it's the very reason I root for us to survive-because we are so stupid about each other.”  (Rooney 109)

Summary: 

Beautiful World, Where Are you has no official synopsis. My guess is because there is no set storyline. Where fantasy books have clear protagonists, villains, plot, and conflict, this novel has as well, yet it is showcased through the mundane setting of earth. The protagonists and villains are the same people, the plot is life, and the conflict is living. Throughout this book, we follow two main characters: Alice and Elaine, members of the female species, college best friends, and victims of the existence crisis. While attempting to maneuver through what these lost souls believe is an utterly corrupt society, they yearn to keep in touch for the comfort of having someone that truly understands. This book is about normal people, yet we come to realize that no life is truly normal. It can be hard to find meaning when we are just simply existing. Some may always question where the world they are promised is if not right in front of them. But behind it all, the misery and confusion, there is in some way, beauty in everything. 

My thoughts:

My assumption is that this was the book Sally Rooney needed to release as an author. All artists have a piece of work that they create for themselves. Not as a way to sell the most, or attract attention, but to let the world see why they wanted to become an artist in the first place. At times, I felt overloaded with the amount of information that she was so quickly pouring down on the pages. But I think that we are intended to feel that way, to feel overwhelmed with everything like the characters did, and like she did as well at some point in her life. Of course, these are all assumptions and guesses. But the way that the emails were written from Alice to Elaine and vice versa documenting their thoughts and discoveries, it wasn’t just part of the story. They were things that Sally Rooney wanted the readers to feel and understand. 

Something that some people may hate about this book, or in my case, might love, is that it is a constant reminder no one is special. Of course everyone is special to someone. Your mom or your friend values you. But in the grand scheme of this world and the universe, you will leave no significant impact. Depending on how you take it, that may be scary to think about, or it may be comforting. No thought you will ever have will be your own, because someone else will have thought it too. There is no weight on your shoulder to change everything or do everything, your purpose is just to live. While everyone we know, including ourselves, is worrying about what happens after we die, or what we will become when we get older, we lose the concept of being alive. We live in the constant state of mind knowing we have limited time, yet choose to focus on superficialities which were indoctrinated on us since birth. We look for meaning in everything, and when we can’t find it, there comes depression. What is the point of living? To that question I answer: why does there have to be a point? The concept of an end result and an ending that “has a point” is a human creation. There is no mission but the ones we create to motivate ourselves. When did simply living require motivation? We created a system to sustain ourselves where socializing is apparent, yet not the sole purpose. We label the abstract time we spend on this earth with a name that restricts us to becoming purely an integral part of the economy while idolizing pieces of paper with no existential worth. We live, but we don’t live. 

At the end of the day, there will be people who understand and praise this book as I do, and those who can’t stomach another word. Nonetheless, there is a reason why I rated it 5 stars and I can only hope you will feel the same pain and happiness when you turn the last page.