It's inevitable, their marriage: Celine and Luke have dated and moved in together, they've gotten engaged (maybe more accidentally than intentionally, but who's counting), and they're counting down to the wedding.

Except...

Celine has some doubts. Celine's sister Phoebe has some doubts. Luke's friend Archie has some doubts. And Luke has some doubts.

I read Dolan's "Exciting Times" for the Sally Rooney comp, but with "The Happy Couple" I had a better idea of what I was getting into. "The Happy Couple" is heavily character-driven, and these are—unsurprisingly—not characters prone to drama...or at least, they're not prone to outward drama. They're prone to understatement and a stiff upper lip.

"The more marginalised an artist's identity," muses Luke, "the more we assume they're trying to teach their audience a lesson" (loc. 1999*). Celine's directness and missing of social clues—things that Celine knows very clearly about herself—made me wonder, initially, how much of Celine was built on Dolan's own experience (Celine is not labeled as such, but Dolan has talked publicly about being autistic, and some of Celine's traits are consistent with my understanding of autism). But then: this is fiction, not memoir, and would I be wondering the same thing had I not read Dolan's Goodreads bio?

Many of the characters here occupy a grey space between likeable and unlikeable. Likeable, until the POV character shifts over to make room for someone else, and we see them through the next person's eyes. Or sometimes likeable, until they turn with steely-eyed clarity to assess themselves. It's hard to be sure who or what to root for at times (Phoebe, certainly). But if you don't mind that grey area, or a close focus on the character, it's really satisfying to read a book in which the characters understand themselves well enough, but the people around them even better.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

A quick and fairly enjoyable read. But, this one falls into the category of some recent novels like Sally Rooney's work that doesn't really work toward a resolution. And, as a character study, these are not as deep as maybe they could be.

Celine and Luke are engaged, and neither one seems particularly thrilled about it. The novel charts the year between their engagement day and wedding day, with five different points of view. It contains the same brilliantly funny observations about people as Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan's debut novel.

Readers who are both "Irish Irish" and "diaspora Irish" will recognize their families in these pages. The passive aggression! The Catholic guilt! The Waterford crystal! In other words, this is me asking for an entire book about Celine's uncle Grellan...

Queerness is woven into most of the friend group, which reflects my experience of being queer in my 20s far better than books with One Gay Friend. It's just not a big plot point that almost everyone is queer, which makes everyone's identities super believable. For such a short novel, all the characters feel very fleshed out too.

Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times is one of my favorite books ever & this was my most anticipated read of 2023, so I was so grateful to receive an advanced copy of The Happy Couple. Big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

When I first requested this on NetGalley, I assumed I wouldn't get it, considering it's an author whose name I know—I'd heard her a recommendation of her debut Exciting Times for fans of Sally Rooney and consequently had not read it. And yet! Here we are.

This was a fun, fast read. I finished in one day, and one day in which I was really busy with other things, no less. It's not quite substantial enough to be a beach read, I think, but it could make a nice pool read if you're looking for something just slightly tougher than pure fluff. I can't imagine almost anyone having a bad time reading this.

As for the Sally Rooney comparison—other than the Irish-ness and eye-roll-inducing depictions of bisexuality (a bunch of cheaters who really actually only care about men, probably, but what can you do) I don't see the resemblance.

I flew through this in one evening—I could definitely see it being a movie with an A-list cast. I loved the character study, but was disappointed there was no true resolution or character growth by the end. It all seemed like a very hopeless version of "it is what it is" or more accurately in this case, "they are who they are", and that's that. A lot of the dialogue, banter, and thoughts were hilarious. Some, however, lost me, like Luke's whole part. There were decent chunks of his thought process that were rambly nonsense, and that doesn't belong in a novel. All in all, I'm conflicted with this review because I enjoyed it enough to keep reading and see how it all turned out, but I was unsatisfied with the absence of character development when the story was essentially a character study, and many chunks of wasted space and lazy writing to increase the page count.

Thank you so much NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review.

Wow. I really, really, really loved this book.

I found myself drawn to the characters immediately not because any of them are particularly enjoyable, but rather because they are just flawed enough to seem real as ever. I really genuinely applaud this author for creating a story that read like one long gossipy chat over a cup of tea (in the absolute best way possible!)

There were so many little details about each of our characters that just stuck with me -- Celine's gloves, Luke's love for their flat and their cat, Archie's attention to what everyone was wearing, Vivian's love of art, Pheobe's cigarettes. God, I just really loved this story and the characters.

Definitely recommend for fans of "Normal People"

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the ebook. Celine and Luke bounce back and forth from Dublin, where they live, Celine playing classical piano and Luke working for a tech company that sends him out on the road periodically, to London, where they have their engagement party, and then a year later, the place of their actual wedding. It’s at first hard to tell if they’re a great couple, forgiving each other’s faults and shortcomings, or maybe the worst, oddly for those same reasons. The book is told through several narrators and is a very quick and hilarious read. Family members and all those old boyfriends and girlfriends get to have their say in this upcoming event. You want to shake some sense into almost everyone in this book, but you’re too busy laughing at the mess they make of it all.

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan is a witty and insightful novel that explores the complexities of love, friendship, and commitment in the context of a wedding. With a cast of well-developed characters, including the happy couple, a best man struggling with unrequited love, a bridesmaid suspicious of the groom's behavior, and a wedding guest observing it all from a distance, the story offers a nuanced and entertaining portrayal of relationships in all their messiness. Dolan's writing is sharp and funny, and her observations on modern relationships are both astute and refreshing. Overall, The Happy Couple is a delightful read that will leave readers feeling both entertained and moved.