The Happy Couple
Longlisted for the 2024 Polari Book Prize
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3.4 • 29 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
'A brilliant contemporary novel' Colm Tóibín
'I am fully in awe of Dolan's talent' Douglas Stuart
'I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it' Marian Keyes
'Dazzling. Not a word is out of place' Katherine Heiny
Meet Celine and Luke. To all intents and purposes, the happy couple.
But Celine's more interested in playing the piano, and Luke's a serial cheater.
And as their big day approaches, the complicated lives of the wedding party begin to unravel. A fed-up bridesmaid, a lovesick best man, guests and family members all find themselves searching for their own happily ever afters.
From the author of Exciting Times, this is a sparkling ensemble novel about love and marriage, fidelity and betrayal.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
As Naoise Dolan’s The Happy Couple progresses, we hear a few sides of the story—and with each one, any earlier rush to judgement feels more foolish. The players in Dolan’s witty novel—a follow-up to the much-buzzed-about Exciting Times—include pianist Celine and her fiancé Luke, both in their twenties and living in Dublin; Celine’s sceptical sister; Luke’s ex-boyfriend/now-best-friend Archie; and Luke’s ex-girlfriend/now-also-best-friend Vivian. Just when the reader thinks they have the measure of someone based on the effects of their actions on others, here comes that person’s point of view, not necessarily excusing hurtful behaviour but making the picture that bit more nuanced, and thus even more absorbing. In the run-up to Celine and Luke’s wedding, the question is not only whether it will go ahead, but whether it should. The reader might make up their mind early, but they’d be forgiven for being as conflicted as the characters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Irish author Dolan (Exciting Times) offers a sardonic chronicle of the year leading up to the wedding of a seemingly ill-suited Dublin couple in their late 20s. Celine is a pianist more dedicated to her career than her relationship with Luke, a slacker at a tech firm who juggles a series of romantic entanglements behind her back. The novel moves from an engagement party in London, which Luke inexplicably flees before the night is over, through the fraught days leading up to the wedding, alternating between Celine's and Luke's points of view along with those of Celine's disturbed younger sister and bridesmaid, Phoebe; Luke's best man and former lover, Archie, who might have had something to do with Luke's disappearance from the party; and the withering Vivian, who views her friends as ants in an anthill: "She could move among them. But she didn't have to, and often enough she didn't want to." Vivian and her arch sense of humor often stand in for Dolan, who extracts amusement from her characters and plays narrative games, such as spinning through version after version of Luke's planned wedding speech. The will-they-or-won't-they question is enough to sustain the novel's momentum as the self-destructive characters careen toward disaster. This is hard to look away from.
Customer Reviews
Blindfolded
I spite of some negative reviews, I liked this book and read it avidly. You do not get a young concert pianist as the main character every day in modern literature, and a believable one at that ! Celine is being portrayed well and she would deserve a loyal husband, therefore unfortunately not Luke. The problem of the book comes with this husband-to-be Luke, his restlessness and promiscuity, also him not having a passion comparable to Celine’s. A lot of the dialogues, reflections, comments in the book are very clever, funny, well written and a treat !
The group of young people being described though are leaning towards a free-floating, cynical and uncommitted lifestyle, dismissive of all overarching principles, which seems to let them go round in circles blindly and aimlessly. They will be old before their time. Hopefully, this will not apply to their author.
Nice and smooth
Very easy reading for those who English is not our first language and refuse to read the “classics”.
Made me laugh and disconnect from social media for a while, witch is a relief nowadays.
Would definitely recommend for a short reading.