2022: I would highly recommend reading this book while you are 29. Not sure it would work if it didn't hit me right in the gut right now.

Honestly, I couldn't even tell you what most of the plot of this book was–and it doesn't matter. What really did it for me were the emails between the two best friends. I just so enjoyed the meandering thoughts, the questions about God and how religion fits into their lives now, the plans and hopes and dreams for the future. It was a lovely balance of definitely being adults, but not yet quite pinned down into marriages or home ownership or any of the other qualifications of being a "real" adult. Kinda how I feel right now!

It was also very fascinating and meta to watch Rooney dissect her own experience around being successful rather young, and what that does to one's self image through the character of Alice. She's been quite open about the pressure of success after you've had one breakthrough moment. It was also hard not to immediately think that everything that happened in this book must be autobiographical and must have happened in Rooney's life. I loved the discussion and that Rooney went there in this novel.

Personally, I really enjoyed this book. Sure, Felix was annoying and I didn't think he was the right choice for Alice, and maybe Simon was a little too self-righteous, and maybe Alice was often selfish, and Eileen expected everyone to read her mind all of the time. But I could see elements of myself at age 29 in all of these characters, and definitely in the relationships I have with the people around me.

The COVID references in the epilogue totally threw me and I didn't love that. Also, my eternal struggle with Sally Rooney and her reluctance to use quotation marks - ugh! What also ground my gears in this book were her paragraphless pages. Double ugh!