The quest to define the quintessential millennial novel
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE a millennial? Bards of the generation across disciplines have varied takes: Taylor Swift’s catalog proposes a shared identity defined by a fixation on teenage heartbreak. Michaela Coel’s TV shows posit a tension between inner trauma and outward behavior. And Sally Rooney’s fiction suggests a reliance on the Internet and a defining awareness of the ever nearer end of the world.
These three artists belong to a larger wave of creators who have captured the zeitgeist of what being a millennial means, living at the intersection of preoccupations both existential and mundane. Their works, as well as the introspective albums of Frank Ocean, Issa Rae’s insightful Insecure, Lena Dunham’s controversial Girls and more cultural touchstones from the millennial set, reflect a range of experiences specific to a generation that came of age with the rise of a life lived increasingly online and the growing threats of climate change, gun violence and political polarization.
That edge The book explored the complicated dynamic between two best friends and a married couple, and how their varying intellectual and political beliefs shaped their tensions. her next novel, followed an on-again, off-again romance between two teenagers into their university years, pulling a thread of domestic violence and female subjugation. Both books feature a detached writing style, details fraught with angst and, perhaps most significantly, refreshingly realistic text-message exchanges between characters enduring quietly tormented love lives. Rooney’s new novel, out Sept. 7, is the story of two best friends and the layered anxieties they bring to their relationships—most of which they experience over the Internet. All of which is to say: her books are light on plot, heavy on inner turmoil, and thus easy for readers to project themselves into.
