The Happy Couple, Naoise Dolan

I did not consciously set out to read an Irish novel on St Patrick’s Day, but I won’t pretend that I wasn’t delighted by the coincidence. All the more so because the novel itself was a delight! It was so warm, and clever, and funny; an utter pleasure to read — I tore right through it. Admittedly, I’ve been on a run of remarkably bleak books of late, so the stark contrast may have heightened the pleasure, but still. Not that this was an entirely happy book; there was plenty of relationship drama, but it was portrayed so reasonably! Significant, meaningful, yes, but cataclysmic, no.

This is absolutely a Millenial novel, which fascinates me. Some aspects that signal this to me: one, it’s a queer novel, with zero need to explain or present itself as such. Two, it has a multiracial and multiethnic group of characters, and this also isn’t something the novel emphasizes — you come to realize it only gradually. I’m 85% sure that one of the characters is Black, but the novel never tells you. I’m not even sure that I could explain why I think he is, and other readers might not notice, but…I really think he is. I think the novel conveys the dynamics of these identities by showing, not telling, in really nuanced details. Third, it’s formally experimental in a casual way that I almost didn’t register, because it feels so much like the various forms through which my life is mediated (notes on phone, lists, fragments). But, significantly, it’s inconsistently so. It does something for awhile, then it stops and does something else. One section of the book is in the first-person, the rest are third-person with FID, usually localized through one specific character but sometimes, unexpectedly, jumping to another. It’s a hodge podge, but it feels both intentional and controlled. I read Dolan’s previous novel, Exciting Times, and enjoyed it, but I think this one is even better — more assured, and a more harmonious balance of various plot lines and styles. I think she’s grown as a novelist, and I’m excited to see what she does next.

It’s also, finally, a great Irish novel, both in terms of the sprinklings of Irish, and varied shades of Irish English, and for its thoughtful examination of Irish identity. It will likely appear on a lot of syllabi of Contemporary Irish Lit classes in the future — or at any rate, it ought to.

I don’t want to compare Naoise Dolan to Sally Rooney, as if there can be only one Irish Millenial writer and we have to choose, but…Dolan is so much better! But maybe, sad to say, it helps to not be mega famous? I don’t know. In any case: get yourself a copy of this book, asap. It’s so much fun.