Review: "The Rachel Incident" by Caroline O'Donoghue

 

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
Published June 2023 via Knopf
★★★★

If you asked anyone who was in the orbit of the English department at Cork in 2009 what Rachel was up to then, they could tell you—she was having an affair with her professor. Depending on how you look at it, that is or isn't that story, but it's Rachel's to tell...so this is her story.

If I'm honest, I read this for the cover and because, having read Sally Rooney's books, I perk up at the thought of another Irish writer. (I'm bright enough to be aware of this, and to know better, but not so bright that I don't still fall for it every time.) By about the second page I could tell that I'd be reading this for its own merits, because it's stylistically very different—more overtly funny, grittier, less precise.

We've all known a Rachel. She's messy, and aware of it, and has opted to own the messiness and sink into it rather than trying to pull it together. Her decision to nurse a crush on a professor is less because of the professor himself than because it seems like an exciting thing to do, and that's her attitude for much of the book: if something seems of a mood that appeals to Rachel, or seems like it will make her interesting, it's something she'll try on and wear around for a while, even if it doesn't fit. (Cripes, we've all been a Rachel.)

Rachel does have her romance in the book, but the real relationship of the story is her friendship with James, who goes from colleague to flatmate to best friend in very short order. Theirs is the sort of friendship that is only possible at a certain age—unselfconscious about wanting a platonic everything from each other, just about fused at the hip, an all-encompassing flame of a relationship that they know but don't acknowledge can't continue indefinitely without new fuel. The story takes its time, but gradually builds a complicated knot of relationships that swirl around them in Rachel's last months at college...as Rachel slowly, finally, starts to grow into the sort of person she wants to be.

Side note: Only after reading the book did I realize that O'Donoghue hosts the podcast "Sentimental Garbage," which is one of the very, very few podcasts that I have listened to. Small world—but hey, listening to an episode or two will give you a sense of her voice and put it in your head while you read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.