Rating: 3.5 / 5 ⭐️
The Happy Couple
Author: Naoise Dolan
Published: 2023 (Ecco, HarperCollins)
Pages: 258 (Hardcover)
Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romance, LGBT
CW: Sexual Content, Infidelity, Absent Parent, Complicated Relationships
This week I read “The Happy Couple” by Naoise Dolan. Dolan is an Irish author of several novels, and her bio shows she is queer and autistic. Her earlier debut novel, “Exciting Times“, is also on my TBR. Let me start out by saying, I enjoyed this book despite my following 3.5 ⭐️ review. But there were a few reasons why I personally did not think it was great. This novel left me with a lot to consider after, and perhaps my Goodreads review of this book which I wrote as soon as I finished was a little immature. Luckily this review gives me a chance to elaborate more.
“If asked ‘Why don’t men commit?’, you’ll say ‘They will, just not to you’; if asked ‘Why don’t women commit?’, you’ll say ‘Commit what, suicide?”
– Naoise Dolan, “The Happy Couple”
“The Happy Couple” is a novel about a young couple getting married: Luke, handsome with a successful career but a serial cheater, and Celine, a shy professional pianist who would rather be in front of a piano than anywhere else. This novel is about the brief events leading up to their wedding, but in their unique perspectives along with three other’s close to them: the bride’s sister and maid of honor, Phoebe, and the best man and ex-lover of Luke, Archie, and a connected but more removed wedding guest and friendly observer in their life, Vivian. The story feels like a character study about these persons and their complicated relationships with a burning question in the background – will the couple get married, or won’t they?
“Life offers few unambiguous red flags. More often, you see specks of crimson dye. They could form a pattern. Or they could just be dots”
– Naoise Dolan, “The Happy Couple”
I enjoyed the story line with the complicated relationship aspect and the characters’ individual arcs that meet, but I couldn’t get on board with some of the narration format and dialogue. The narration structure flowed, but it felt strange to read in the out-of-order timeline way the author was trying to do and it lost me at times. The author focused on keeping the character’s perspective sections separate, and the story timeline just jumped around in a disorganized way that I didn’t enjoy. For the record, I do enjoy narration that is out of order or misleading to support the plot, but the way this book did that felt strange… I wish I could explain why better, but it wasn’t my favorite in my personal opinion. The dialogue between characters also felt dry and unexpected in a negative way at times, and made me do an internal double-take at some of the things that were definitively stated.1 But other portions of the dialogue and interactions were brilliant so I am definitely torn. The author is Irish and I am not, so maybe some of my confusion lies there in the dialect. I also appreciated the queer representation included in this novel.
This book is still worth the read if you’re a fan of Sally Rooney. But I’m a little partial to Sally Rooney at the moment. I am interested in reading more of Dolan’s work though. The story and character studies from the author’s perspective captured my interest as soon as I read the first page. I gave this book 3.5⭐️ because of my mixed feelings about this one.
Let me know what you think!
_Elizabeth
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