I stumbled on The Rachel incident by Caroline O’Donoghue at a second-hand bookstore and I remembered that I saw a wonderful mini-review of it. Sadly, I couldn’t place whose review it was. I checked Goodreads to see the ratings. It’s a bad habit I have- I spend over an hour at bookstores first selecting books that draw my attention and then proceed to check their Goodreads ratings before buying them. I read the synopsis of The Rachel Incident and knew i’d enjoy it.
Synopsis
“A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.”
My thoughts
The Rachel Incident follows Rachel, a literature student in her early twenties living in Cork, Ireland. She works at a second-hand bookstore and quickly becomes best friends with her co-worker, James. The novel captures the messy, unpredictable nature of life in your twenties, touching on themes like friendship, unrequited love, and the realities of life in Ireland during the recession. While reading, I kept thinking of For the First Time by The Script, an Irish band. I recently went to their concert, where they talked about how the recession left many losing their homes and struggling to find decent jobs—this song perfectly mirrors the backdrop of the book.
The audiobook was fantastic, especially with its Irish narrator, which really brought the story to life. The evolution of Rachel and James’s friendship as they grow up was fascinating to follow. Though friendship is the central theme, the book also delves into relationships, writing, making mistakes, and trying to pull your life together. It’s relatable, engaging, nostalgic, character-driven, and has a distinctly Irish charm.
I highly recommend this one.
My rating
If you’re a fan of Sally Rooney’s books, you’ll likely enjoy The Rachel Incident. Fans of Fleabag may also find this one appealing. To read other reviews, click here.
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