The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

I learned about this book from a Friday episode of :If You Haven't Read This It Is New To You" from Parnassus Books--this weekly video clip recommends books that you might have missed when they came out that you should have read and why. The description of this is that it is messy, and I would certainly agree with that assessment! There are shades of Sally Rooney to be sure--less graphic sex but the same kinds of people who struggle with what to do and why to do it in their twenties, as well as the more fluid definitions of social support that extend beyond family. the author author who comes to mind in Anne Tyler, with her evocative portrayals of her character's inner lives. I liked this a lot. The book opens with Rachel Murray as a happily married, pregnant journalist based in present-day London, where she’s written extensively about the legalization of abortion in her native Republic of Ireland. Flashback to 2010, when she is an undergraduate, struggling to figure out a path for herself, and finding herself in a friendship with James, a young gay man that is her absolute best support. Ireland is in the midst of recovering from an economic setback, the social landscape in Ireland is shifting rapidly, and while she doesn't quite know what to do with her life or how she fits in, she does know who she can rely upon in times of crisis. She and James share a mutual infatuation with an older married man, and while James wins out in that situation, there are quite a few downstream complications that add an element of humor and fun to Rachel's figuring it all out and getting on with it in her thirties.