Infinite Books

Rachel Murray is a twenty-one-year-old, tall (5’11, but to make it easier, she often says she’s six foot) woman living in Cork, Ireland. She studies English and has a crush on her professor. Her roommate, James, a closeted gay who works with her at a quaint bookstore, tries to help her attract the professor’s interest, but the plan works in an unexpected way.

This is 2010, and for Rachel, it’s a challenging year. She is an outsider – at least, this is how I see her – with her height, unrequited love, and uncompromising openness to admit her feelings. In a few months, she “would be another unemployed graduate with an English degree,” but for now, she’s content watching “Frasier” with her roommate. Then another James comes into her life, bringing a passion almost impossible to control. She is also involved in an odd relationship, a mixture of mentoring and jealousy, with Fred, the professor, and his wife, Deenie.

It can be difficult for people to relate to their younger versions of themselves. When coming of age, our feelings are often intense and definite. The future may look extremely dark or, on the contrary, very bright. Rachel moves back and forth between naïve and over-trusting to pragmatic and resourceful. The story is written as a first-person narrative but with a certain distance as the novel’s voice is that of Rachel over ten years later when her life significantly changed. Perhaps, reading this brilliant and witty book, we’ll discover how much we can relate to Rachel’s problems, regardless of age. I, for one, was indeed reminded of my youth and all its mistakes – but also of its victories.

THE RACHEL INCIDENT, by Caroline O’Donoghue, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023