VOICE OF A GENERATION

Aindrisha Mitra attempts to make sense of the Sally Rooney phenomenon in India

- Aindrisha Mitra

If you haven’t heard of Sally Rooney, chances are you are living under a rock. Rooney came with the force of a meteor and exploded over the literary-verse, making her perhaps the most talked-about author in recent times.

Her stories, tapping into the intricacies of human design, speak to a generation dealing with the ambiguity of love, loss and everything in between. Her novels are sensual, sensorial and centred around modern-day crises—the high school love birds who weren’t meant to be, youngsters ambling through the maze of adulthood, sibling relationships gone sour. Nothing out of the ordinary, and, yet, spot on.

However, when it comes to literary meritocracy, the prodigious 30-something Irish author with a globally resonant voice has triggered somewhat of a mixed response. From critiques of her women being ‘too white’, ‘too straight’, ‘too delicate’ and ‘too virtuous’—almost straight out of Victorian novellas—to their questionable life choices, it seems like Rooney is imposed with an unspoken onus of getting things right. Her romances are thought to be served with a side of capitalism and class antagonism.