Tell us about your new novel, Such a Good Couple, which Marian Keyes says is ‘exactly what I crave from popular fiction and so rarely get’
With all my novels, I start by picking a kind of anchor question. I remember sitting at a bar in Bantry at the West Cork Literary Festival and my husband asked me what the new novel was about and I told him the anchor question: Why stay married when there’re so many better options?! He said: “Thanks!” And laughed a lot.
So the novel kind of began as an exploration of millennial relationships, where we are all at now in our 40s. Many of us are nearly 20 years together in a world that looks a lot different to the one we got together in.
In the writing the book expanded into exploring groups of friends whose connection might be somewhat predicated on all being couples and what happens to the group when a bomb goes off in one of those relationships? How it can leave the others questioning their choices.
What is the secret of a happy relationship?
Staying playful and goofy.
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It’s your sixth novel. Give us a quick rundown on the previous five.
Don’t ask a novelist to be quick about anything! The other novels are all very different but they are mainly stories about how we live our lives right now in this incredibly absurd and endlessly fascinating time. The one outlier is my horror novel, Where I End.
You’ve also written two nonfiction titles: Corpsing and Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown. They sound serious, but hint at a comic streak?
Ah yeah, they’re a bit of craic. Lots here about my addiction issues (drugs and alcohol are the best but also not always!), grief, mental illness etc. They’re ostensibly memoirs which is a genre I believe to be sometimes unfairly maligned as self-indulgent. I think quite the opposite – though I would say that. A memoir, to my mind, is very much a conversation with the reader.
You’ve ‘played Whack-a-Mole with genres’, from romcoms to literary fiction, memoir to horror. Do you delight in being various?
Yes. I wouldn’t say I particularly set out to genre-hop. Usually the question/story comes first and then I figure out where it might sit.
You’ve documented your struggle with mental illness and spoken of the inspiration of becoming a parent. How have these very different experiences fed into your writing?
Well, the story of my first nervous breakdown at 22 was the first story I felt qualified to write. I wouldn’t say I write about my mental illness as therapy, it’s more just that I am a bipolar artist so it’s kind of the lens through which I see the world. Becoming a parent was an amazing surprise when it happened and so when my first son was born it was a real kick in the face for me to kind of get moving and try and make something of my life, for him. I think before that I was still in recovery mode, living in the aftermath of my first breakdown. Having children seemed to drag me into the world. And my God, having kids is fun.
You co-host two podcasts and write a weekly newspaper column. Does that complement your life as an author or distract from it?
They very much complement my life as an author because I think to be a writer you need to be out in the world having conversations and participating in life! Also as a novelist, I’m working day in, day out on something that could take a year or more to come about so I like that I get to make work to a weekly deadline as well. It’s satisfying.
Tell us about those podcasts, Mother of Pod and The Creep Dive
Mother of Pod is a comedy podcast about parenting that I co-host with my friend Jen O’Dwyer. Our tagline is: two vadge-owners who want a refund. And The Creep Dive is a comedy podcast where me and Jen and our other co-host, Cassie Delaney research and tell the most messed-up stories we can find on the internet. The Creep Dive’s tagline is: We go deeper than any normal person has time for.
Which projects are you working on?
Not to be that annoying person but it’s a project I can’t talk about yet.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
The usual one: Read!
Who do you admire the most?
My mother.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Caveat: I’m a big horror fan. The book is The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica. Film-wise, I just watched Bring Her Back. It’s like a two-hour panic attack – I loved it. And my current fave podcast is The Girlfriends on Wondry.
Which public event affected you most?
Brian Wilson, Vicar Street, 2007. It was just a beautiful, bittersweet night and it really made me understand the power of making art.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Inis Meáin always and forever.
Your most treasured possession?
My hammock.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Stephen King, Meg Wolitzer, Jon Krakauer, Sarah Manguso, Mary Karr, Alison Rumfitt, Dorothy McCardle, Anthony Bourdain and loads more.
The best and worst things about where you live?
The best is that I live close to all the theatres in Dublin. The worst is that it’s still ages away from Broadway.
What is your favourite quotation?
More of a mantra: Action comes before motivation.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Yale from The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Six years later and I still think about him.
A book to make me laugh?
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan.
A book that might move me to tears?
I’m told Such a Good Couple will do the job.
Such a Good Couple is published by Hachette Books Ireland
