'In a nutshell, I will say that I hugely enjoyed my experience of reading this novel, which is not necessarily to say that I enjoyed this novel,' said Day 6 books columnist Becky Toyne.īecky Toyne is books columnist for Day 6. Rooney has been described by The New York Times as the ' first great millennial author,' and her last novel, Normal People, was adapted into an Emmy Award-nominated TV series.īut hype can only take a novel so far, especially when the book itself may not live up to it. The anticipation isn't surprising, though. 7, 2021, release - and Rooney's American publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, distributed branded merchandise such as tote bags and bucket hats prior to the novel's release.īeautiful World, Where Are You was so widely anticipated that an advance copy of the book sold for more than $200 in June, months before its release. The book was an immediate Amazon bestseller on the day of its Sept. It's safe to say Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You was one of the most hyped novels of 2021. It’s a fate that too often befalls precocious, art-making women: they’re turned into straw men and set publicly alight.8:34 Sally Rooney's new novel is exquisitely written, but doesn't live up to the hype: Toyne To profess a grand love or distaste for her novels, or even – perhaps especially – a lofty indifference to them, has become a declaration of pop-cultural allegiance, a statement that’s almost entirely about ourselves. But Sally Rooney (the literary product, not the person) has become a kind of shibboleth. But it is telling that the question I’ve been asked most about the novel, other than whether I intended to sell my advance copy, has not been What do you think? but Are you on Team Rooney? Popularity of any sort inevitably rouses a backlash, and it can be constructive – often revelatory – to parse the stories that capture our collective imagination. I’ve ruined my chances for unethical riches with my margin scrawls, dog-ears, and penchant for spine-breaking (reading, after all, is a contact sport). By the time I received my heftily embargoed galley of Sally Rooney’s new novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, it would have been more lucrative to auction the book online than review it, such is the wild demand for Rooney’s fiction, the monetised eagerness.

Sally rooney books review