Beautiful World, Where Are You

Before one even reads the novel, the title announces the idea of beauty as central to the plot. Alice theorizes that beauty invites “contemplation of the divine” (232), while Eileen tries to “preserve” beauty in her Life Book. The two women debate societal commodification of beauty and speculate that a diminished aesthetic experience is an earmark of civilization’s demise—yet no one firmly argues a definition of “beauty.” How does the author define beauty, and how is this shown in the novel?

Alice writes to Eileen, “You seem to think that aesthetic experience is, rather than merely pleasurable, somehow important. And what I want to know is: important in what way?” (230). In what ways is aestheticism crucial to developing a societal culture? Is this cruciality portrayed in the novel?

The four main characters’ class differences affect the material conditions in which they live and travel to maintain friendships. Do the richer characters have privileged opportunities to encounter the hidden, “beautiful world?” Does their class privilege impact how they perceive beauty?

On the process of reading, Alice writes, “[I]t feels like an active effort, of which an experience of beauty is the constructed result. But I think more importantly, great novels engage my sympathies and make me desire things” (231). Do you think it is helpful, or even necessary, to literary criticism to acknowledge the personal, emotional effect of a work? Or would this hinder a work’s interpretation?

Eileen notes that her sister, Lola, rather than her “two best friends in the world” (247), reminds her of herself because Lola is also “completely insane.” How do the main characters regard their emotional intimacy with friends versus family? Are certain kinds of relationships more meaningful than others in the novel?

Rooney writes in a distinctive style with little punctuation in dialogue. How does this technical light-handed approach affect the subtextual communication between two characters?

Alice writes to Eileen, “[I] wonder whether celebrity culture has sort of metastasised to fill the emptiness left by religion. Like a malignant growth where the sacred used to be” (328). What is this “emptiness” Alice mentions? How does each main character individually pursue assuaging this specific emptiness in their life?

Alice and Eileen debate whether the novel, as an artform, is an irrelevant institution during this modern era of acute political and material distress. At the same time, this debate takes place between two fictional characters in a novel. Is Rooney being ironic, or is this her sincere self-criticism as a novelist? What does this peculiar meta-commentary say about the text as a whole?