Book Review: Naoise Dolan really is a new literary sensation
Naoise Dolan, Novelist, pictured at Cork City Library, Grand Parade. Picture: Michael O'Sullivan
- The Happy Couple
- Naoise Dolan
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson, €20
Naoise Dolan’s eagerly-awaited second novel, , is being promoted as ‘a new literary sensation’ on its cover.
And so it is, beautifully constructed with sparkling dialogue and an ingenious, unpredictable plot.
As a Dublin-educated female in her early thirties, the inevitable comparisons are being made between Dolan and surprise best-seller Sally Rooney (three million copies of three novels), earning Dolan the label “millennial novelist”. But don’t let these labels put you off: the novel is a terrific read, edgy, fast-moving, and laugh-aloud funny.
I loved Dolan’s use of slang, and have added bottomless (no need to say brunch apparently), bodycon, pony farm, emotional valence, and milquetoast to my vocabulary.
Dolan’s first novel, , was shortlisted for several prestigious literary prizes in 2021, including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Young Writer of the Year Award. It was always going to be a hard act to follow. While focused on the adventures of a 22-year-old Irish graduate teaching English in Hong Kong, the cast of the new novel are mainly in their late twenties.
Some, like Dolan herself, also did postgraduate studies at Oxford. The novel is set almost equally in London and Dublin, and several of the characters, including the happy couple of the title, have had affairs with members of their own sex as well as the opposite sex.
Dolan (born 1992) mentions in her Wikipedia entry that she identifies as queer and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 27. These extra pieces of information, not offered by the publisher’s press release, seem to me to be an important key to understanding the psychology of Dolan’s characters.
The first one we meet is “The Bride”, Celine, aged 26. Her relationship with Luke, 28, is memorably described, up to the point of the marriage proposal, in four short pages. They share a tiny two-room Dublin flat in a subdivided Georgian townhouse, paying an exorbitant rent for the privilege, sharing it with their exotic cat and Celine’s piano. Celine is a professional pianist, and wears gloves at all times to protect her hands. She practices for five hours a day, wearing headphones.
They communicate mainly by arguing, which is how they arrive at the conclusion that, having been together for three years, it is time they got married: “They did not as a rule, ‘share feelings’. Celine’s family had never taught her how. To see the tint of your internal mood ring as warranting disclosure, and to expect a rapt audience — no, no. Have you met Irish people?”
Luke, it turns out, is only half Irish, and was educated at Oxford, where he shared a house with three others, Archie (Luke’s long-term lover), Shawn (male) and Vivian (female, born in Lagos, Dublin childhood) who remain his best friends. The novel is set as much in London, where the wedding is to take place, as in Dublin. Somehow the bi-location of the action, and the mixed Irish and English identities of the characters seem to echo the duality of their sexual identities.
The wedding is in London on the orders of Celine’s childless Aunt Maggy, who offers to host the engagement party. This will be attended by Maria, Celine’s “greatest love” before meeting Luke. We meet Celine’s younger sister, plain-talking Phoebe at the party, who provides some light relief from Celine’s self-obsession.
Then Luke takes over the narration as he grapples with the challenge of writing his speech the night before the wedding. But can he really go through with it? Can Celine? Readers are kept guessing right up to the very last minute, and I’m not going to spoil the surprise.
