The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, I loved this book, I wasn’t expecting to and it exceeded my expectations. I kept wondering when “the incident” was going to happen and what it was going to be. Caroline O’Donoghue, does a brilliant job keeping you waiting but satisfied along the way. As a millennial of a certain age this book really hit home. A lot of time was spent in 2010 and there was something about going back to that era that, well, shocked me because it feels like it was yesterday but it was a totally different world. Writing one’s life as a TV show hit such a cord. I love how relationships are explored in this book. How it captures that time in life when one’s best friend can be so intimate.
The story is about Rachel and her best friend, James Devlin, and how they navigate life living together in their early twenties in Ireland. Rachel is middle class and James is working class and closeted gay. They go through the trials of early adulthood directly impacted by the financial upheaval of 2008, that for any millennial cross sections a painful period of entering the job market when the whole fucking western capitalist world fell apart. The “incident” is shocking and I won’t spoil it for you. But thanks to our current political state it’s something that could easily happen in 2024 America….I love how the book ended. It gets a 5 out of 5 recommend from me!
I am a full on Caroline O’Donoghue fan now, I adore listening to her podcast, Sentimental Garbage, she had me at the tagline: “justice for dumb women.” It’s a podcast about chick-lit and rom-coms and all the pink fluffy joy that shit brings us–which in my opinion makes it so punk rock. Like, screw you world for making me feel like the things that delight me are basic and a waste of time, but celebrating super-hero crap left, right and center. Dolly Alderton is a regular guest and good friend of Caroline’s which particularly thrills me because I am convinced that Dolly and I are best friends who simply haven’t met yet…