I’ve recently read several books where the friendship is a real push-pull affair where one pushes the other to move outside of their environment to become more than they are or can be if they stay: My Brilliant Friend by Elaine Ferante and The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. In Beautiful World the friendship is on a more equal footing but one is still more successful, if earnings and job status are a measure of success, than the other.

The friends met and shared a flat together through university and beyond with Alice writing her first novel and then her second and becoming well-known, winning awards and it is later revealed having one of her stories turned into a film. You can’t help wondering if Rooney based this character on herself. Alice has a breakdown after her second book, feels under pressure over her next book and once released from hospital moves to a rectory in the countryside in Ireland to continue recovering. On Tinder she meets Felix.

Eileen works in a low-paid job writing blog posts. She has a childhood friend, Simon, whom she has sex with off and on depending on how she feels about herself. A lot is made in the book about Simon, who is a religious in that he attends Mass every week but not religious enough to wait until marriage to have sex. He actually turns out to be a saint in my eyes, putting up with Eileen’s off/on ideas about their relationship, waiting patiently for her but always attending when she calls.

This is a character driven story, no big plot here, with the fly in the ointment being Felix. He is the grit in the story that forces people to look at themselves through his many questions. Although he is interested in Alice he does a good job of not showing it, and doesn’t read books and has no intention of reading hers. That may be a good thing. Alice can give as good as she gets but to me, theirs is not a comfortable relationship but they may both contain elements that the other needs.

Much of the story is told through emails to each other and here the book takes on a serious tone, wondering about what beauty is, capitalism and whether Alice should be doing her book tours. The voice moves from 3rd to 1st person here but I did find that these dragged a little and wondered whether these were the sorts of conversations friends have – even writing long emails seems a bit strange to me – but presumably people do. The use of email and social media in relationships depicted is very realistic.

Although these characters are in their thirties, they seemed to have relationships and needs that were of much younger people and behaved in a similar way too. At one point in the book, Eileen and Simon visit Alice and of course Felix in the rectory and here the book moves to a more instant, relatable element with a visit to the beach, visiting one of Felix’s relatives for the evening and eating together. There are of course tantrums and stomping offs created through Felix but it didn’t feel so forced or immature.

The truth is, I just didn’t care enough about the characters and their lives. Was this supposed to be a literary rom com? I do, however, hope that Rooney has come to terms with her fame, writing and money.