Scala Radio Book Club: Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
Twenty-five years since releasing her iconic, 1.5 million-copy bestselling novel, ‘Rachel’s Holiday’, Marian Keyes joined Mark in the Scala Radio Book Club to chat about her brand-new novel ‘Again, Rachel’ which follows her main character, Rachel Walsh two decades later.
Mark started off by asking Marian to explain who Rachel Walsh is.
"In the first book, Rachel was a young woman living in New York, living it up, who accidentally, according to her, ended up in rehab" explained Marian, when Mark asked who Rachel Walsh was. “She really was convinced that there was nothing wrong with her, but she thought it might be fun to be there for six weeks. While she was there, she saw the denial; when she couldn't deny any longer that she was actually an addict. And the rest of the book sees her in early recovery.
“Picking up over 20 years later, she is now working as a counsellor in the rehab facility where she got sober all those years ago. I've been in recovery from alcoholism for 28 years. So, Rachel isn't me, but we do have things in common.”
Mark asked, "What was it, do you think, looking back 25 years, that made Rachel's story chime with so many readers?"
“I don't know, I'm only going on what people tell me. I suppose the thing that has touched me is the fact that a lot of people said, either they got clean or sober from reading Rachel's holiday, or that they understood. I got a letter last week from someone who said her mother had been an alcoholic and that she was always so angry because she felt her mother could have stopped. And then, when she read Rachel's Holiday, she realised it's not a moral failing, and it's not a choice. So, maybe, there was that that played into it as well."
Mark then turned his attention to the other characters featured in the book, “There is as much time in the book dedicated to the stories of the addicts in recovery that Rachel works with. Why was it important?”
“By the end of Rachel's Holiday, Rachel was making plans to train as an addictions counsellor, and I suppose I am so grateful to be not drinking anymore. I love addicts and recovery. I think, ‘Oh my God, you're my people. And you're so great.' And we get nothing but bad press. But aren't we fabulous? And looking back at my time in a rehab facility. In many ways, it was horrendous. I mean, it was kind of the worst day of my life when I arrived there because nobody wakes up and thinks, ‘Oh, great, I think we're going to rehab today.' But while I was in there, the other people I met who were the same as me, we were so lovely to each other most of the time, it was like that, you know, kind of all these people on a desert island having to survive. There was so much humanity and support and love. And that feeling has stayed with me. And so, it felt very natural. I knew Rachel was a counsellor and her counsellor when she got sober had been in recovery and I suppose I wanted to recreate that atmosphere of support and even in the darkest of places and darkest of times, that human beings can be kind to each other. When there is nothing else to offer, at least there is a kind of mutual compassion and that moves me and it cheers me up because people can be not great. A lot of the time and the world can be a brutal place. And then people can be lovely, and I get comfort from that.”
“There's a sense that there's an equilibrium between women's writing and men's writing.' Mark remarked. 'Am I naive? How have you seen it from where you sit?”
“I got a letter recently from the woman who was the chairman of the Women's Prize for Fiction and the stats are still not great. It's still quite difficult when you're more difficult to persuade men to read novels by females. 89% of readers of women's fiction are women and 11% are men. Whereas, it's about 50/50 of women reading men and women. I have been so lucky, people have been so good to me and I am incredibly grateful for the career I have. Whereas it's about 50/50 of women reading men and women. I have been so lucky, people have been so good to me. And I am incredibly grateful for the career I have. But at the same time, I feel like I have a platform. And, on behalf of all women writers, it bothers me that men who wrote about families or relationships are just called male writers, or it's called literature. Whereas, women's work is called women's fiction, or worse, chick lit. I think the more people like me and others wang on about it, it will change eventually.
Mark concluded by commenting “Ireland does seem to be changing a lot socially more than in my living memory. Less socially conservative, perhaps less judgmental, less inclined to allow the Catholic Church to tell people how to live. How true is that?”
In many ways, it's true. It has been so joyous. We had the equal marriage referendum in 2015. To see the absence of fear, especially in younger people, has filled my heart so much. It has been so beautiful. I love living in Ireland - I find the people so entertaining and warm. To be quite honest, we have a long way to go in terms of social justice. But, we had a general election in 2020 and the left-leaning party almost got a majority and I feel that the next election we have a could see genuine, grassroots change.”
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