The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

Thursday, July 13, 2023--San Antonio

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue is an Irish novel ranging over time from the 1980s until the near present.  Rachel is a student getting a degree in English at regional university in Cork while worrying about current expenses and future job prospects.  She is working part-time at a bookstore where she eventually meets James who becomes employed there and becomes her best friend.  Although James appears to be gay, he is not "out."  That appeals to Rachel because he becomes a non-threatening escort to events and eventually a trustworthy, yet intimate, flatmate for a very basic rental in a poor part of the city so that they can each live away from their parents.  James is not a student, but he is intelligent and witty and is much more comfortable in social situations than Rachel is.  Unfortunately, the timing for them is such that book sales are dropping due to the Kindle and a recession, so both worry keeping their part-time jobs and about their future job prospects.  Rachel is also quite immature and easily makes bad life decisions due to that and/or because she is a millennial who "wants it all." She doesn't have the reasoning ability to sometimes judge between what can be expected and what actions aren't appropriate.  (She cannot resist going through an employer's purse or bathroom and taking what she feels she deserves to have for herself!)  The other main characters are:  1) "Carey"is a sexually exciting partner for Rachel in a relationship that is on-and-off through much of the book because of her immaturity and tendency not to communicate about plans or problems.   2) Her major professor with whom, also due to her immaturity, she fantasizes (even though he isn't that attractive) about their developing a sexual relationship since she knows he is married to a former student.  Her major professor's wife who is a book editor who, upon her husband's recommendation (which is being made due to a form of blackmail by Rachael), hires her for an internship for a summer.  It's a story of miscommunications, misconceptions, and poorly managed lives.  For the most part, it is also a very entertaining story.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.