Rachel's in her final year at university in Cork, Ireland when she takes a part-time job at a bookstore. It's 2009, and her parents are not weathering the economic crash well, which shakes her out of her comfortable middle-class existence. She and James get along beautifully, quickly developing the inside jokes and secret language of longtime friends. It's 2009, and James is reluctant to be openly gay, although he is in a relationship with an older, married man, a man he met through Rachel, who is taking a seminar with the professor. As they both enjoy life and struggle to figure out what they do next, what kinds of relationships they will have, what kind of career they can put together, the one constant is their friendship.

This is a straightforward coming-of-age story. While this novel is set in a very specific time and place, this story of a young woman trying to figure out how to be, trying on different identities while always seeing herself as larger and more inept than other see her, is a universal one. O'Donoghue has taken the ordinary and made it into something that shines. This is a very well-written and well-structured novel that allows Rachel to make some mistakes and bad decisions while never making her a mess. She's figuring out what adulthood entails, just like everyone has to. It's also refreshing to read a novel like this that isn't set at some elite university located in London or New York. Cork in 2009 is vividly described, that feeling of being in a place that holds your entire world while also being aware that it isn't a particularly large or important location. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author. ( )

A poignant, gently funny coming-of-age story set in Cork City just as the Great Recession hits. The eponymous Rachel is trying to navigate life while finishing her degree at UCC; there are of course many twists and turns along the way. Caroline O'Donoghue has a great ear for the cadences of Irish speech and for capturing relationships in a way that feels emotionally true. (And yes, I'm going to go there: better on both counts than That Other Contemporary Irish Novelist Writing About Twentysomething Women. O'Donoghue is far less at risk of vanishing up her own bum.) I was roughly the same age as Rachel in 2009 and going through some similar life stages and there were more than a few moments in The Rachel Incident where I had a little shock of recognition. Recommended if you're looking for a warm-hearted bit of contemporary fiction. ( )

De Rachel affaire. Door: Caroline O’Donoghue.

Al het goede komt uit Ierland tegenwoordig.

Dat is misschien een beetje overdreven maar er zit daar wel iets heel goeds in het water want Ierland heeft me al heel wat prettige lees- en kijkuren opgeleverd. De Rachel affaire was een veel beter boek dan ik kon vermoeden en The Woman in the Wall houdt me al elke avond aan mijn tv gekluisterd.

Net als haar Ierse collega’s Rooney, O’Farrell en Baume (om een paar geweldige vrouwen te noemen) heeft O’Donoghue een verhaal geschreven dat veel dieper en breder gaat dan je zou verwachten. Op basis van de achterflap lijkt dit boek een simpel liefdesverhaaltje dat fout loopt. Maar geloof me: niets loopt zoals je het zou verwachten.

Rachel en haar beste vriend James zijn twee geweldige hoofdpersonen die direct je hart veroveren; ze lijken je vrienden, zo goed leer je ze kennen. - In mijn geval vriend die ik niet (meer) heb maar wel zou willen. – Er gebeurt best veel in hun leven, niet altijd even makkelijk, maar toch zijn ze er altijd voor elkaar. Ik wil niets spoilen maar onderwerpen die voorbij komen zijn: vriendschap, liefde, overspel, coming of age, uit de kast komen, klassenverschillen, abortus (in Ierland, niet makkelijk), financiële problemen, druggebruik, zwangerschap, schone schijn,… Veel ellende maar er wordt ook veel gelachen, en gehouden van.

De Rachel affaire is een warm, grappig, positief boek vol geweldige personages, goede muziek (The Dresden Dolls), toffe boekenwinkels en veel rommeligheid, zoals het leven zelf is. Ik hoop dat er een tv-serie van komt! ( )

Rachel is a college student and her best friend is James Devlin. When she meets another James, she tells him she already has a James in her life, so she calls him Carey (his last name). The story follows Rachel and her relationships with the 2 James. When Rachel falls for her married college professor, she is sad when he opts for her roommate instead. Rachel and Carey's relationship is good, but circumstances get in the way..The professor / roommate love affair leads to strange consequences in the life of Rachel - one she uses to her benefit (if you can call it that).
Rachel reflects on all of this a few years later, when she hears news of her professor and his situation - he is in a coma. She reflects on her life then, and her life now. She also became a journalist writing on feminist issues.
The book is a coming of age story of sorts, with a focus on sexuality and issues affecting sexuality. Several bursts of humor are interspersed with some serious issues.
I enjoyed it. ( )

Rachel Murray is earning her university degree in Cork as the economy collapses, making her job prospects upon graduation dismal. But she's preoccupied anyway with a crush on her professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, and she manages to wangle him a book launch at the shop where she works with her best friend and roommate James Devlin. But the professor is more interested in James than in Rachel, and their worlds are even more awkwardly intertwined when Rachel begins an internship with Byrne's wife Deenie. At the same time, Rachel falls headlong into an intense relationship with James Carey, from Northern Ireland, but things fall apart.

Years later, James is a TV writer in New York and Rachel is a pregnant journalist in London, and she learns that Dr. Byrne is in a coma. Should she tell James? How? Finally, it's Deenie who reaches out to Rachel to clear up something in their history, and Rachel who puts Deenie in touch with James.

Character-driven and set in a specific time and place, where the global financial collapse has real implications for everyone.

See also: Normal People by Sally Rooney

Quotes

But despite all that I was bling to the emergence of a scene when it was happening right in front of me. I never considered that the bands I saw, the things we wore or the people we slept with were the edges of a larger circumference, the makings of a circle. I suppose it's because none of them ever became famous. (67)

I still thought I was the centre of this story, the main character, just because it had started that way. (74)

Here is something that I love about James: he lets people have their own connections. He will never try to convince you to feel differently about someone....However, when it comes down to fights between friends and lovers, he will put the friend first. (93)

I was so bad at asking people direct questions that it amazed me when others managed it. (143)

It was the earliest news story I remember paying attention to. It's impossible to think about your period without thinking about sex, and the long shadow of a potential abortion hung over every thought about it. (182)

"When you love someone, you sign up for the whole thing. Even if they're grumpy or weird or sick....It doesn't matter how many things you have on already. You love the whole person. (231)

I had never even wanted to leave Cork very badly, until living in Cork felt like a panic attack waiting to happen. (259)

It was like the word had opened a portal, and he had to decide whether or not to step through it. (265) ( )