Toni Stephenson is a feminist and a historian, who is currently studying for masters in journalism at the University of Leeds. She is passionate about uncovering overlooked histories and drinking Yorkshire tea. She has been a volunteer researcher for the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project since 2018 focusing on researching Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell in order to honour her achievements with a heritage blue plaque.

Here is a her review of Sally Rooney’s ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You?’

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? is Her Third Piece to Snapshot a Generation

It has been 18 months since the screen adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People entranced audiences worldwide with the electric relationship between Marianne and Connell. One pandemic later, Sally releases her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You?

Moving away from students who were previously protagonists in her novels, this book focuses on four characters in their 30s, finding their feet in their professional lives. Alice and Eileen are both in the literary industry. Drawing parallels with Rooney’s own life, Alice is a successful author whose novels have recently propelled her into the limelight. Alice’s best friend Eileen, on the other hand, is struggling to pay rent on her salary as editor of a local literary magazine. Their friend Simon sails through life in his white-collar office job, while Felix works shifts in a distribution centre. Through following the lives of these characters, BWWAY? promises to expand on themes of class, gender and capitalism previously explored in Rooney’s novels and lead us on a journey to find beauty in a world dictated by a toxic relationship with profit.

During a rare Q & A at London’s Southbank Centre on publication day, Rooney gave insight into why she tackles these themes. She revealed that as a socialist novelist she doesn’t input her beliefs and values into her books to convince anyone that they are correct, rather she does it to open the floor to discuss them. Our relationship with the planet, as its inhabitants, is also expected to be an overarching theme of the novel. In relation to privilege, Rooney discussed the ‘culture of convenience’ we as a ‘Western Society’ find ourselves in the centre of; where, for example, we can visit a supermarket at 3am and buy a bag of Doritos. To be in the percentage of the world’s population with access to this is undoubtedly a privilege but while this is convenient, is it necessary? And is the outcome we experience disproportionate to the damage that went into the delivery of such a convenience. Rooney also pointed out how little control consumers have over making significant change to this culture, which now seems engrained. Sure, we can all boycott going out for Doritos at 3am – every little helps – but until our environment is valued more than profit, change will likely be limited. It is these kinds of frustrations that Rooney so accurately articulates through her characters’ experiences in her novels, and why so many hail her the novelist of the young generation. However, when asked about how she writes in a way that Millennials and Gen Z resonate with, she jokingly admitted that she has no idea if readers will find the characters or situations relatable, as if her talent for this a pure gift.

There is no doubt that Rooney is a gifted writer, and her eloquence speaking on the issues of today such as shared rented housing, unsustainable consumer habits and the hierarchical classification of different categories of labour seemed unmatched with even the best politicians and scholars. Her dubbing as the quintessential millennial novelist, is no overstatement as she encapsulates the mood of the young generations and beautifully articulates our collective troubles and delights. As always, it is the development of love and friendships between the characters that deliver the beauty in Rooney’s novel BWWAY? It has already received rave reviews from critics and has been hailed Rooney’s best work yet. If her previous novels are anything to go by, this one is certainly worth a read.