I haven't read Sally Rooney but will have to give it a try. I like the way you describe a book as an alternate consciousness. I love those books where I am totally lost in the book and when I stop reading it takes me a minute to get back to my current environment. I just spent a couple of days rereading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store where I felt I was living on Chicken Hill among those characters.
I have read one Sally Rooney (Beautiful World, Where Are You?) and really enjoyed it. But yes there are some limitations for her popularity. I would love to read one of her books for my book club but it’s more a Gen X and older club and mixed politically. Rooney’s Marxism would turn most of them off. Also the flat minimalist writing. The fact that the characters are not conventionally “likable”. It’s painful to pick a book for the club that everyone dislikes. I try to avoid that! I imagine if I were in a younger hipper club maybe it’s the type of book they would pick.
I would quibble about "chick lit" predating "women's fiction," as to me they describe two different genres, though chick lit might be a subset of women's fiction (women's fiction, as I used it in libraries means "books that center domestic experience and the lives of women and families and usually, though not always, shy away from graphic sex and violence--thus Danielle Steel, for instance, is women's fiction, not romance). I used to dislike both terms, and I still sort of do, but I also wonder if that's a kneejerk move wherein I don't want the word "woman" appended to something because that will mean people think it's dumb, or that it should be paid less money, or that it shouldn't get to make decisions about its own healthcare. I'm not sure that's the route I want to go.
I really appreciated your “when it comes to the books I most love, I don’t have much to say other than…I like it, it’s good” sentiment. (Even though I think you absolutely have more to add than that based on your newsletter!)
I’ve read all of Sally Rooney’s books and do plan to get my hands on Intermezzo as soon as I can. (I tend to get super lucky with my library’s bestseller, non-holdable shelf.) My very silly attempt at summing up why I like her writing is that I tend to copy many of her sentences into my reading notebook - she writes some really good sentences! I’d also agree that I feel really engaged and get “absorbed in [the] alternate consciousness” of her worlds.
Such a great perspective!
Looks like everyone in Chicago is reading it, because there is a long list of people waiting for any version in the library!
I haven't read Sally Rooney but will have to give it a try. I like the way you describe a book as an alternate consciousness. I love those books where I am totally lost in the book and when I stop reading it takes me a minute to get back to my current environment. I just spent a couple of days rereading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store where I felt I was living on Chicken Hill among those characters.
You remind me a bit of my first editor, Gary Fisketjon, who, when asked, “How do you know when a book is good?” said, “When I read it.”
I have read one Sally Rooney (Beautiful World, Where Are You?) and really enjoyed it. But yes there are some limitations for her popularity. I would love to read one of her books for my book club but it’s more a Gen X and older club and mixed politically. Rooney’s Marxism would turn most of them off. Also the flat minimalist writing. The fact that the characters are not conventionally “likable”. It’s painful to pick a book for the club that everyone dislikes. I try to avoid that! I imagine if I were in a younger hipper club maybe it’s the type of book they would pick.
I would quibble about "chick lit" predating "women's fiction," as to me they describe two different genres, though chick lit might be a subset of women's fiction (women's fiction, as I used it in libraries means "books that center domestic experience and the lives of women and families and usually, though not always, shy away from graphic sex and violence--thus Danielle Steel, for instance, is women's fiction, not romance). I used to dislike both terms, and I still sort of do, but I also wonder if that's a kneejerk move wherein I don't want the word "woman" appended to something because that will mean people think it's dumb, or that it should be paid less money, or that it shouldn't get to make decisions about its own healthcare. I'm not sure that's the route I want to go.
This was an excellent essay!
I really appreciated your “when it comes to the books I most love, I don’t have much to say other than…I like it, it’s good” sentiment. (Even though I think you absolutely have more to add than that based on your newsletter!)
I’ve read all of Sally Rooney’s books and do plan to get my hands on Intermezzo as soon as I can. (I tend to get super lucky with my library’s bestseller, non-holdable shelf.) My very silly attempt at summing up why I like her writing is that I tend to copy many of her sentences into my reading notebook - she writes some really good sentences! I’d also agree that I feel really engaged and get “absorbed in [the] alternate consciousness” of her worlds.