Following her critically acclaimed debut novel Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan is back with The Happy Couple, an effervescent novel set between Dublin and London. Here, she talks about Irishness, marriage and writing “something fun”
? And what inspired you to write such a joyful follow-up in a time of such instability for a lot of people?I was definitely of a mind to write something fun – for myself, really, because as far as community service goes, you could equally argue that sad books can aid catharsis.
That’s not problematic necessarily; it’s just a choice of emphasis. But having already written a novel that did that, I was interested in writing one where the multiplicity of Irishness gets explored. But accepting the premise that Irishness is constructed – what is it made of, and do we like its components? I do like many of them a lot. I adore Irish English, for example, and I love tracing how it’s been influenced by our pre-colonial language Gaeilge .
So to that extent, I felt a childish desire to put equal work into writing as another character, and have that work be recognised this time because the character is a man. But that wasn’t my primary motivation, because ‘this must have taken a lot of work’ is really not the reaction I want from readers.
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