Book Review 5: The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

Caroline O'Donoghue: The Rachel Incident

Genres: Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Coming of Age, Drama, LGBTQIA+ Literature, Irish Literature

Reading Level: Adult 

Setting: 2009-2010, Cork, Ireland

Published: 2023

Page Count: 289 (Paperback)

Content Warnings: Infidelity, Abortion, Miscarriage

Rating: ★★★★⭑ (4.25 out of 5)

The Rachel Incident is largely more of a no-plot, coming-of-age, vibes-only story than the type of novel that follows a stringent plot. Not to say that there isn’t any plot at all, as it does follow the progression of an affair between James and his roommate Rachel’s closeted, married professor Dr. Byrne, as well as the progression of Rachel’s sometimes turbulent relationship with her boyfriend Carey. That being said, the story is very character-driven. It focuses so much more on the emotions that the plot creates for the main characters and on their development as young, broke college students navigating love, life, sexuality, and a future during the recession in Ireland. So, if you don’t like character-driven stories, you may find yourself bored or uninterested in this one, but I, personally, enjoy a well-written character-driven story. I found the antics of Rachel and James to be humorous, endearing, emotional, frustrating, inspiring, idiotic, annoying, and heartwarming all at once–which is pretty much a good summary of early young adulthood in it of itself. That’s to say, I think O’Donoghue did a brilliant job of developing these characters and making them seem like real twenty-somethings that will feel relatable to most readers who have experienced this stage of their lives. 

O’Donoghue did make quite an interesting choice in her decision to tell this story from the perspective of Rachel and not James. As for most of the novel, the book really feels like it revolves so much around James’ relationship with the older Fred Byrne–a closeted bisexual, married college professor, whom Rachel had a schoolgirl crush on, but he ultimately hooks up with her best friend and roommate instead. Rachel consistently felt like an outside observer looking in, and I constantly found myself questioning why this story was being told from Rachel’s perspective, why it was titled “The Rachel Incident,” when so much of it felt like it was actually James’ story. However, the explanation for this choice seems to reveal itself towards the end of the novel, when Rachel becomes embroiled further in her best friend’s affair after doing an internship with Dr. Byrnes’ wife, Deenie, and forming a sort-of friendship with her. It puts Rachel in a difficult position, needless to say, and ultimately the whole thing comes together when Deenie figures out that Dr. Byrne is having an affair. Rachel’s involvement becomes quite clear when Dr. Byrne would rather lie and claim that the affair was with Rachel than admit that he is bisexual and the affair is with James. While Dr. Byrnes’ lie did hurt Rachel–it cost her a future working in publishing with Deenie–it also worked out quite well for her in the end, as Rachel just happened to be pregnant with her boyfriend Carey’s baby, in desperate need of an abortion (across the pond in England, of course, as abortion wasn’t yet legal in Ireland), and broke. She was able to lie and tell the Byrnes that she was pregnant with Dr. Byrnes’ baby, something that Dr. Byrnes himself could not deny without coming clean about his lie and hidden sexuality, and extort them for the money she needed to get to England for the abortion (that she ultimately didn’t need because she ended up miscarrying, but the money did help her out of her financial troubles at the time). 

By telling this story from Rachel’s perspective instead of James’, it gives O’Donoghue the opportunity to explore themes of feminism and women’s rights in Ireland, as well as exploring LGBTQ themes but narrowly avoiding a harmful stereotype in fiction. A lot of published novels (and even more so in online posted fan-fiction works), stories about queer male relationships are often written by cisgender, straight women. Some have questioned this trend and even brought forth the way that this promotes fetishization of queer men for the appetites of straight female audiences. There is a double standard when it comes to same-sex fetishes, as activists are quick to point out the trend of lesbian fetishes in pornography that is mostly aimed at straight men, but talking about straight women fetishizing gay and queer men in literature is a relatively new (and relevant) conversation. O’Donogue side-steps this in The Rachel Incident. She is able to include queer male characters in significant (and non-stereotypical, in the case of Dr. Byrne) ways into her story without trying to write from the perspective of an LGBTQ man herself. While it is made quite clear in the text that the relationship between James and Dr. Byrne is sexual, she doesn’t include any graphic smut scenes of queer male sex written from/for the female gaze. It is a work that is good progress towards showing how authors can include diverse characters in their works, and even make them significant characters with plots deeply relative to the story, without trying to tell their stories themselves: inclusion without appropriation or misrepresentation. 

It also gives O’Donoghue the chance to narrowly avoid another cliche in fiction. The idea of the older, male (often married) professor sleeping with his young female students has been done to death in fiction. Throughout the beginning portion of this book, the reader is misled into believing that this is where the story is going, that Rachel and Dr. Byrne will have an affair. The twist that the affair was with James is unexpected and flips the trope on its head. It still is based on the old cliche, an older married professor is having an affair with someone younger, but it is with a young man, and James isn’t his student either. 

O’Donoghue also ends the story with a clever line, nodding to her writing choices. Deenie meets with Rachel years later to confront her about knowing that the affair her husband had wasn’t really with her and wants to know the truth. Rachel is reluctant to air her best friend’s dirty laundry, so instead she simply tells Deenie it isn’t her story to tell and gives Deenie James’ contact information. It is exceedingly smart and also quite meta. Rachel’s admission that the story isn’t really hers to tell after the entire novel followed this very story from her own perspective, which feels like a subtle way of O’Donoghue acknowledging what she knows her readers are probably thinking: “shouldn’t this be told from James’ perspective?” It is also meta in another sense, as James and Rachel are both aspiring to work in writing or in publishing books, so the implication thus is that Rachel is writing her own story whilst looking back on it and realizing the story isn’t hers, and leaving the idea open that eventually James may choose to tell his side of the story from his own perspective (though I wouldn’t actually want O’Donghue to publish this. Sequels are never as good as the original, after all). 

The actual prose and stylistic writing of this book are very good. It has very literary undertones (in the way that books about books often do), without ever feeling flowery or overdone. It feels real to the story’s characters and circumstances. I could picture the story being told from Rachel’s own voice, Irish accent and all, in my head as I was reading. The characters felt real and developed, their voices rich throughout the text. I was able to know who was talking just from what was said without needing a dialogue tag to confirm which character it was for me. O’Donoghue has perfectly captured blending her unique voice and style as the author with the distinct voices of the characters that she crafts. 

Book review 5 of ~5,000 lifetime goal.