Marian Keyes on the return of Rachel Walsh

Kobo: You’ve said that you thought your last book, Grown Ups was a turning point for your craft as a writer. Is that something you’re still actively working on with every new novel, even at this stage of your career?

Marian Keyes: I think most authors want to think that we get better with every effort. Grown Ups was structurally complicated, and I was very happy that I pulled it off.

Writing Again, Rachel I was slightly uncomfortable about returning to writing in the first person, being limited to that one point of view. I worried it might be a retrograde step. But the book surprised me with its emotional depth and the journey it takes the reader on.

I’m far more confident now on my fifteenth novel than on my third.

I’ve heard another writer say when she’s despairing at the limits of her talent, as we all do sometimes, that she tells herself she’s not writing the novel—she’s just writing a novel.

But there are peaks and troughs in any career, places where sometimes things come together in a harmonious way, and other times where despite our best efforts the work is merely mediocre. But we still show up and try our best. I really don’t want to let anyone down and I want to surprise readers with each new book.

Kobo: To that point about constant progression, you’re now a very different writer from the one who wrote Rachel’s Holiday. How much was that on your mind in writing Again, Rachel?

MK: Rachel’s Holiday was my third novel and I had no idea about the craft of writing. I didn’t know that you can’t just throw in every fun idea you have.

And as I’ve learned my craft over the years people have responded in different ways: some respond very well, but others are disappointed: they say, “you’re not as funny as you used to be.”

Writing Rachel twenty years older, I was worried about making her a little bit too po-faced for readers of the first book to feel a connection to. Obviously she’s older and more mature, or less immature anyway, because that’s inevitable. I tried to stay connected to her fundamentals, to still keep her fun but not ridiculous like some person trying to stay crazy and young way past her use-by date.

One thread that connects the younger Rachel and the older Rachel is that they’re both addicts in recovery. My recovery is the foundation that the rest of my life is built on, and it’s the same for Rachel. And there’s also her family, the sisters and mommy Walsh and daddy Walsh which form a kind of scaffolding. So I wasn’t alone going into writing Again, Rachel the way I thought I might be—there were these pieces that formed an infrastructure for the story.

Kobo: Have you been keeping an eye on Rachel for the past 25 years, or did you have to catch up all the way with her in this book to learn what she’s been up to?

MK: Rachel’s Holiday was the second Walsh book I wrote, then I wrote Angels which was Margaret’s story, and Anybody Out There? which was Anna’s story, and then in 2012 The Mystery of Mercy Close which was Helen’s story—and in every novel the other sisters are referenced, though not always in great detail. Each novel is pretty much a standalone story. But we know from Anybody Out There? that Rachel had married Luke, and in The Mystery of Mercy Close we learn that Rachel’s working as an addictions counselor and living in New York. But in the years since then I didn’t think about her that much. I know that sounds awful, but I had other characters to shepherd and take care of. It was incredibly nice to write about her again.

I’ve had a long antipathy to wards writing sequels. I’ve just never felt they’re appropriate for my books. But it’s been 25 years, and I think we live several lifetimes every decade, so I thought now it would be okay to check in and see how she was.

Kobo: You alluded to this a moment ago, that you and Rachel share a journey to sobriety. Did you always know as a writer that Rachel was going to be okay in the end?

MK: I always knew she’d be okay.

Anybody who knows anything about recovery knows that sobriety is so tenuous. It’s literally just 24 hours at a time. And I remember myself being in rehab and saying to myself that I would stay sober no matter what. And I know a lot of people make those promises to themselves, but I believed the steps would keep me okay on a daily basis. So I knew even when writing Rachel’s Holiday that she was going to get clean and she was going to have a good life because it happened to me and it has been the most wonderful thing that has ever happened or will happen to me.

There was a time I was trapped in compulsion and in love with alcohol and certain I could never live without it—and then suddenly I could. So I believe there’s hope, and even if you relapse again and again, there’s still hope.

Kobo: Is Rachel as an addiction counselor inspired by someone in particular who helped you, or is she more of an ideal of what a great counsellor could be?

MK: I’ve only been to rehab once and I found the counsellors to be such an interesting combination of compassion but also brutal truth-telling. That worked for me. I think it’s really important to break open that shell of denial.

In my own experience of 12-step meetings, it’s immensely welcoming to newcomers but there comes a point where you need to get honest and real. And I see that in people who are in recovery, even if they’re not counsellors, who bring that necessary two-part combination of being able to love the person until they learn to love themselves but at the same time being able to call the person out on their BS. And they understand the BS is going to keep coming because that’s what addicts do, we lie.

Rachel understands all of this and she’s very good at her job, but I didn’t want her to be this terribly impressive person. I love her inner monologue, where she can be in the middle of a group assignment and wondering if the sneakers she ordered might turn up today, or maybe since it’s FedEx she’ll have to go to the depot to get them, and oh God imagine it’s two days... [laughs] She’s still herself—she’s still Rachel.

Kobo: I think we’re starting to see more accurate, complex, compassionate portrayals of addiction in popular culture lately, but it’s been a long slow evolution. Where do you think portrayals of addiction still go wrong?

MK: There’s still this belief that addiction doesn’t happen to nice people who show up for work and pay their mortgage and have good friends and family—that these aren’t the kinds of people troubled by addiction, because they’ve somehow chosen not to be like the people who are.

But addiction is everywhere. And it’s painful to acknowledge. Excruciating to see it in oneself, but also in one’s family.

I think we’re selfish and we think, Oh my God he’s drinking too much and I’m going to have to address it and ruin everything and how will we cope at parties and celebrations if I acknowledge this problem. So I think in these social units, whether it’s work or family, we cover over it, we engage in collective denial. Even when we surround ourselves with myths of addiction, like hidden traumas that a lot of addicts say they don’t have any memory of.

I’m no expert on what causes addiction, but I think it should more often be depicted as tedious, rather than tragic.

Kobo: Do you think we’ll hear from Rachel again? Maybe when you’re in your 80s we could get another book?

MK: It’s so funny: I took 25 years to write this sequel, and now all I want to do is stay in that world.

I started writing the new book in March 2020, about four days before Ireland went into full lockdown, and I finished in September of last year. So the book was my pandemic companion and the Walshes were my family. The comfort I got from this book surprised me. ◼

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.