Better to Be Deeply Loved than Widely Liked
A review of Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
“What if the meaning of life on earth is not eternal progress toward some unspecified goal… What if these things just rise and recede naturally, like tides, while the meaning of life remains the same always — just to live and be with other people?”
BWWAY is incredibly character-driven. Rooney writes in a very detached third person point of view, makes no use of quotation marks, yet her writing is so distinct because these characters could walk right out of the pages. Rooney has mastered the art of writing about ordinary life and its mundaneness, but still her prose is full of casual magic and small beauty in everyday. There are talks of class consciousness, climate anxiety, mental health and—bonus!—the pandemic; it feels so validating to read about something we've collectively experienced in literature, most especially in fiction.
Her characters aren't so likable; they're awkward, messy, and flawed, and this is what makes all her novels feel so authentic. I've heard a lot of reviews describe BWWAY as the mature eldest sister to Normal People and Conversations With Friends, and I couldn't agree more! It is political, philosophical, and immensely existential. The chapters are a blend between third person narratives and a first person email correspondence between Alice and Eileen, and wow. The intellectual discussions, the depth of the dialogue, the level of overthinking life in general — I so desperately want to be their friends.
A lot of their conversations relate to the question of whether living at all is useless, in the grand scheme of things. Whether spending time on contemporary novels is futile, trivial, or privileged, and if we should be investing our energy into grander, more existential matters instead. If anything, this is something the pandemic has made most of us realize — that the arts, the trivialities of friendship and romance, love, beauty; these are what we live for. BWWAY is a manifestation of the value in writing about things everyone relates to. It is a story of the human condition.
My favorite quote and biggest takeaway from the novel is “…it’s better to be deeply loved than widely liked.” Speaking from the perspective of someone who loves deeply, not widely, but highly selectively — being widely liked is rare, and the attempt to be is futile. While being widely liked may seem appealing, there is no better feeling than the security and fulfillment that comes from nurturing deep, meaningful relationships.
BWWAY is incredibly character-driven. Rooney writes in a very detached third person point of view, makes no use of quotation marks, yet her writing is so distinct because these characters could walk right out of the pages. Rooney has mastered the art of writing about ordinary life and its mundaneness, but still her prose is full of casual magic and small beauty in everyday. There are talks of class consciousness, climate anxiety, mental health and—bonus!—the pandemic; it feels so validating to read about something we've collectively experienced in literature, most especially in fiction.
Her characters aren't so likable; they're awkward, messy, and flawed, and this is what makes all her novels feel so authentic. I've heard a lot of reviews describe BWWAY as the mature eldest sister to Normal People and Conversations With Friends, and I couldn't agree more! It is political, philosophical, and immensely existential. The chapters are a blend between third person narratives and a first person email correspondence between Alice and Eileen, and wow. The intellectual discussions, the depth of the dialogue, the level of overthinking life in general — I so desperately want to be their friends.
A lot of their conversations relate to the question of whether living at all is useless, in the grand scheme of things. Whether spending time on contemporary novels is futile, trivial, or privileged, and if we should be investing our energy into grander, more existential matters instead. If anything, this is something the pandemic has made most of us realize — that the arts, the trivialities of friendship and romance, love, beauty; these are what we live for. BWWAY is a manifestation of the value in writing about things everyone relates to. It is a story of the human condition.
My favorite quote and biggest takeaway from the novel is “…it’s better to be deeply loved than widely liked.” Speaking from the perspective of someone who loves deeply, not widely, but highly selectively — being widely liked is rare, and the attempt to be is futile. While being widely liked may seem appealing, there is no better feeling than the security and fulfillment that comes from nurturing deep, meaningful relationships.