Sally Rooney: The Voice of a Generation

The idea of Sally Rooney as the ‘voice of a generation’ seems to me inherently silly. I am most definitely not of the same generation, yet I read her work and recognise myself, my friends, situations that people I know have experienced.  My father, who was born in the dying weeks of the World War 2, in a different country, with a first language I never learnt to speak, with parents who came from different countries from each other and from him, read Sally Rooney and recommended her to me saying “I see myself”.

She has emerged as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary literature, often hailed as the "Salinger for the Snapchat generation." Her novels resonate deeply with readers, particularly young adults, for their acute portrayal of millennial life, relationships, and the intricacies of modern love. Rooney’s work is celebrated not just for its engaging narratives but also for its intellectual rigor, the specific places she brings to life, and the literary references that weave through her stories and perhaps her secret is not that she is a voice of a generation, but that she writes universal truths we all recognise.

 

Body of Work
Rooney burst onto the literary scene with her debut novel, Conversations with Friends (2017), followed by the critically acclaimed Normal People (2018) and In Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021). Each novel explores the lives of young people navigating complex emotional landscapes, against the backdrop of contemporary Ireland. Rooney’s characters are introspective, articulate, and deeply aware of the socio-economic realities that shape their lives.

In Conversations with Friends, Rooney introduces us to Frances and Bobbi, two college students in Dublin who become entangled in a complicated relationship with an older married couple. The novel explores themes of power, vulnerability, and the dynamics of modern relationships with their often-ambiguous boundaries between friendship and romance; her prose is precise, sharp and unflinching, which captures perfectly the nuances of modern communication and reflects the intellectual and emotional preoccupations of her characters.

The lives of Marianne and Connell, two students from a small Irish town, as they navigate their intertwined lives from high school to university is the core of Normal People. This massively successful novel is a profound exploration of class, identity, and the often-painful process of growing up and Rooney’s ability to capture the subtleties of human interaction and the silent struggle within relationships makes Normal People resonate strongly with readers and viewers who were hooked on the tv series based on this.  My daughter did a semester at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and was amazed to see that the Irish boys just needed to wear GAA shorts and a gold chain on campus to be instantly elevated to the status of lusted after academic gods, such was the effect of this text.

In Beautiful World, Where Are You, Rooney expands her scope, tackling broader questions about the world we live in as we follow Alice, a successful novelist, and her friend Eileen, both attempting to navigate their personal lives while grappling with the existential anxieties of contemporary life. This book is a meditation on friendship, love, and the role of art in a world that often feels chaotic and disconnected.

 

The Places She Mentions
Rooney’s work is deeply rooted in specific places, particularly in Ireland. Dublin, where much of her writing is set, becomes more than just a backdrop; it is a character in itself. The city’s cafes, streets, and university settings are intricately woven into the narrative, reflecting the characters’ inner lives and the social milieu they inhabit.

In Conversations with Friends, Dublin is portrayed as a city of intellectual engagement and artistic exploration. The characters frequent literary events, cafes, and the homes of artists, embodying the vibrant cultural scene of the city; it is a Dublin where ideas are exchanged, relationships are formed and broken, and the complexities and stresses of modern life are laid bare.

Normal People contrasts the rural setting of Carricklea, a fictional small town in County Sligo, with the urban environment of Trinity College, again in Dublin. The physical and social distance between these places underscores the themes of class and identity that run through Irish life. Carricklea represents the limitations and expectations of coming from a small town, whilst Dublin symbolizes opportunity, freedom, and the possibilities and challenges of self-reinvention.

Beautiful World, Where Are You, combines both milieus as Rooney explores both rural and urban settings, reflecting the globalized world her characters inhabit as the novel shifts between Dublin, a small costal town and various international locations, emphasising the interconnectedness and the sense of displacement that many people feel today. Through her detailed descriptions, Rooney brings these places to life, making them integral to the narrative and the characters’ journeys.

Notable in all of her novels, but expressed differently in her latest, Intermezzo, is a friendship that bridges youth into young adulthood, that survives the transformation and perhaps realisation of self that occurs at college. Also notable in each novel is the juxtaposition of how access to financial support and stability impinges on how the characters live and their preoccupations. Rooney doesn’t labour the point or interrogate the meaning and effects of this economic inequality between the characters, instead it is repeatedly and calmly noted, an insistent prod to encourage the reader to think about it themselves - what needing money to survive means, how does it informs actions, are choices freely made, does success reward the most able or those that have the luxury to concentrate on only that which interests them, would you make different choices if you had a safety net, can you afford to learn from failure, what do we call someone who accepts money and gifts from someone they are sleeping with?  The pressures and stresses the characters experience and grapple with are multifaceted – internal and external, metaphysical and solidly material. 

 

Literary References and Influences
Sally Rooney is a storyteller who engages intellectually with a broad range of literary influences within her stories. Her work is peppered with references to other writers and philosophical ideas, reflecting her characters’ preoccupations and presumably her own literary tastes, but she is respectful of her readers; she doesn’t perform intellectual grandstands to impress us with how clever she is, nor does she make the story reliant on us understanding or recognising her allusions, it is a very accepting and egalitarian intellectualism, not dependent on having gone to the right schools or living in a certain postcode.

Conversations with Friends, has characters discuss writers like James Baldwin and Elena Ferrante, exploring themes of identity, politics, and the personal versus the public self. These references are not merely name-drops; they enrich the narrative, providing a deeper context for the characters’ intellectual and emotional struggles and it reminds us, that ideas and struggles are universal – we are rarely the first to feel something, nor the first to try to articulate these feelings. 

Beautiful World, Where Are You, directly addresses the role of the writer and the place of art in society; the novel’s title itself is a reference to a poem by Friedrich Schiller, famously set to music by Franz Schubert, reflecting the novel’s preoccupation with beauty, art, and the search for meaning in a tumultuous world. As the characters engage in discussions about the relevance of art in contemporary life, referencing authors like W. B. Yeats and political thinkers like Karl Marx, we also meet meaningful characters for the first time who are not thinking of Yeats, Marx and Schiller and we see more of the balance that is necessary for lives to be lived well – public and private, the life of the mind and the life of doing … it is an interesting narrative dynamic, we are both confronted with the nebulous boundaries of knowing, whilst also shown the necessity of binary choices … even as we make the choice we are aware it is temporary – a yes and no, but only for this second.

 

Impact
Sally Rooney’s novels have struck a chord with readers around the world, particularly those who see themselves reflected in her characters’ experiences. Although her writing captures the uncertainties, anxieties, and complexities of millennial life with a precision and empathy that is both rare and profound; her exploration of relationships, identity, and the socio-economic forces that shape our lives, are universal rather than limited to one demographic.

Rooney’s ability to blend the personal with the political, the intellectual with the emotional, is what sets her apart as a writer. Her characters are not just navigating their own lives but are also grappling with larger questions about society, power, and the role of art and this intellectual depth, combined with her sharp, clear prose and acute understanding of human relationships, makes her work resonate on multiple levels. By grounding her stories in specific places and engaging with a broad range of literary influences, Rooney creates narratives that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. As her work continues to captivate readers, offering both a mirror to our current moment and a thoughtful exploration of the timeless themes that define the human experience, we look forward to the release of Intermezzo in September 2024.

 

Intermezzo
I’ve been lucky enough to read this as a proof! The action returns to Dublin, with the city, Trinity and the Debating Society all making appearances.  They have semiotic importance, in that they are signs that represent layers of meaning revealed throughout the novel but have deeper resonance if you have read her earlier works – we are going back to the same place, but seeing it from different angles, within a different framework, with new lens.

The binaries are illuminating – two brothers, older and younger, two parents, the one who is gone is the one who stayed, the one who left is still there, two relationships with age gaps, one accepted, though problematic, the other not really problematic, but treated as such, questions of equality and power, access to power, security, financial and emotional … this notion of ‘norms’ runs throughout and it is clever that the story finishes at a ‘Norm’, the name given to a high level of performance at an accredited chess tournament … pretty much the opposite of the general understanding of norm ‘something that is usual, typical, or standard’.

It was only as I was reading this last book that I worked out my position in relation to the Sally Rooney superfans … I think that they are doing her a disservice expecting her to be ‘the answer’ … for me, her books are about asking questions, interrogating both myself and my assumptions about the world around me.  I think given the demographic I belong to, that makes her a pretty powerful voice!

Books By Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends (2017)
Normal People (2018)
Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021)
Intermezzo (2024)

 

Books Recommended by Sally Rooney
Free Therapy (2024) Rebecca Ivory
"Arresting and inventive."

Wild Houses (2024) Colin Barrett
"This strange and beautiful novel brings to life an entire world. Wild Houses is a book not just to read but to live inside."

Nothing Special (2023) Nicole Flattery
"I truly love Nicole Flattery's writing."

No One is Talking About This (2021) Patricia Lockwood
"I really admire and love this book. Patricia Lockwood is a completely singular talent, and this is her best, funniest, weirdest, most affecting work yet."

The Topeka School (2019) Ben Lerner
"The Topeka School is a novel of exhilarating intellectual inquiry, penetrating social insight and deep psychological sensitivity. At every turn, its beautifully realised characters are shaped, even in the privacy of their inner lives, by the pressures of history and culture this is a book not only about how things really feel, but what things really mean. To the extent that we can speak of a future at present, I think the future of the novel is here."