#BookReview of #TheHappyCouple by Naoise Dolan | @wnbooks

‘From the author of Exciting Times‘
– The Happy Couple

[ About The Happy Couple ]

Meet the wedding party:

THE BRIDE AND GROOM
Celine and Luke are meant to get married and live happily ever after. But Celine’s more interested in playing the piano, and Luke’s a serial cheater.

THE BRIDESMAID
Phoebe, Celine’s sister, is meant to finish college and get a real job. Instead she pulls pints, lives with six flatmates, and has no long-term aspirations beyond smoking her millionth cigarette.

THE BEST MAN
Archie, Luke’s best friend and ex-boyfriend, is meant to move up the corporate ladder and on from Luke. Yet he stands where he is, admiring the view.

THE GUEST
Vivian, Luke’s other best friend and other ex, was meant to put up with Luke’s bullshit when they dated. But she didn’t. And now she is contented, methodically observing her friends like ants.

As the wedding approaches and these five lives intersect, each character will find themselves looking for a path to their happily ever after – but does it lie at the end of an aisle?

[ My Review ]

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan publishes with W&N Books May 25th and is described as ‘a sparkling ensemble novel about love and marriage, fidelity and betrayal, that is both ferociously clever and supremely enjoyable’

The Happy Couple has a great cast of characters offering the reader an exciting fusion of personalities with a sharp and smart dialogue. Based around a wedding that may or may not take place the reader is treated to a fantastic and very cleverly written tale that is an absolute pleasure to read.

Celine and Luke are a couple on the cusp of marriage. Celine is a devoted musician and Luke is a devoted commitment phobe. Not exactly a match made in heaven, yet plans for the wedding are fully in motion. Celine is very much aware of Luke’s penchant for transgressions but the alternative of being alone just does not appeal to her. Having been together now for three years, marriage is really the inevitable next step. Celine is able to compartmentalise Luke’s behaviour but, as the preparations move forward and the wedding day closes in, both begin to question their relationship and their future together.

‘Celine messaged him. He didn’t reply. He tended to float off, and he’d never been much of a texter. She knew that, and for the most part, she accepted it. But did he have to do it tonight?’

Phoebe, Celine’s sister and bridesmaid-to-be, Archie, Luke’s ex-boyfriend but also Luke’s best friend, and Vivian, another ex and close friend of Luke’s are all cast as characters, offering multiple viewpoints on how the couple should move forward.

Phoebe’s life is in a state of flux. She has no major ambition to complete her education, content enough to serve pints and to soak up the nightlife that London has to offer.

‘She had survived to age twenty-two with only the usual signs of wear: mild nutritional deficiencies, self-diagnosed anxious attachment style, self-diagnosed avoidant attachment style, stiff neck from excessive phone use’

But Phoebe is concerned. She knows Celine and is uneasy about her ability to make the right decision about her future.

Archie is caught up in his own dilemma. Since breaking up with Luke years previously he has never really been able to move on. Archie lives a hedonistic kind of life partying and playing hard. Luke requests his services as his best-man, but for Archie this is just one step too far. He still holds very strong feelings for Luke but, like Celine, Archie is aware of Luke’s fear of commitment. Archie had walked away years previously but now, seeing Luke on the verge of marriage, he’s frustrated and rattled about his own future.

‘Archie knew; Celine must have known too. She didn’t have any more of Luke’s love. She was just better at forcing decisions’

Vivian stands to the side as an onlooker, almost a voyeur, watching the activities of her friends. She is there if needed to pick up the pieces and can see the inevitable implosion of her friends lives but she watches and observes from the side-line.

‘She’d been savouring her prosecco while the boys skirmished. To her they were ants. The people at her gallery too -and before that, her fellow Oxford students – and really all the world. She stood overhead and watched the little black dots: their marching lines, their tripod gait. She could live on their level. She could move among them. But she didn’t have to, and often enough she didn’t have to.’

All five individuals are fabulously drawn and characterised with an acerbic wit throughout. All seem to be emotionally challenged in some form yet all are apparently functioning adults in their working lives. Naoise Dolan takes the reader on a journey from Luke and Celine’s engagement party right up to their wedding day. Split between London and Dublin, the scenes are clearly set with the relationship crossovers well established. The extended members of Celine’s family, the Irish connection, provide an ideal contrast to the Oxford type personality of Luke and his friends.

The Happy Couple is a fabulously entertaining and contemporary novel with plenty of warmth and humour throughout. Naoise Dolan has a curious razor-sharp style that perfectly fits the storyline and the multiple POVs. I have often commented that a certain book would transfer well to the screen but in this case I think The Happy Couple would fit perfectly on stage. There is a definite theatrical element with the witty dialogue and insightful observations on the complex dynamic of the modern relationship and the institution of marriage. With great attention to detail The Happy Couple is an intelligent and fresh novel, highly perceptive, very interesting and relevant.

[ Bio ]

Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College, followed by a master’s in Victorian literature at Oxford. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features for publications including The London Review of Books, The Guardian and Vogue.

Naoise’s debut novel EXCITING TIMES was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated and optioned for TV.

She has been shortlisted and longlisted for several prizes, including The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.

Twitter ~ @NaoiseDolan