It takes a brave author to put a troubling or unlikeable character at the centre of a book, but Belinda McKeon has attracted glowing praise from readers, critics and the great and good of Irish literature. Her second novel, Tender, is sure to garner her more acclaim.
Tender is the story of friendship, obsession and emotional abuse. In 1996, Catherine and James meet in Dublin. Catherine is a student at Trinity and James has just returned from Berlin. While Catherine is battling and unrequited crush for a fellow student, James has his own demons to contend with – he is gay but still largely closeted, and suffering from depression.
"Their story is one of instant connection, but it's Catherine's story and the way she becomes obsessed with James and the reason why," explains McKeon. "I have found myself saying that the novel is about young love, but I was thinking that it's really not. She becomes obsessed with him, to a very large extent because he is gay. She is fixated. A large amount of what's driving her is this inherited, unthinking homophobia. She wants to own him and control him. Is that passion? She is driven by something a lot less sweet and lovely than a crush."
Catherine can in some ways be seen as having the worst traits associated with so-called 'fag-hags' – she is overly protective of James, tries to block him from forming relationships, and frequently outs him to others.
"I think having a gay friend makes her feel so much more worldly. It is a ticket to a different version of herself or a shortcut to a sophisticated, much more worldly version of herself," says McKeon. "A lot of what she was doing felt so unpleasant and dark to me at times, but it also felt very real. I was wondering if this novel was just a product of my own twisted psychology. But then over the last few months watching gay Irish people having to tell their stories and ask to be accepted, I saw something of the same dynamic. – some of Ireland was treating our gay citizens the way Catherine treats James. I think her behaviour comes from the culture she grew up in."
That culture was one where issues of sexuality were still largely repressed. The mid '90s were just 20 years ago, but the setting of the novel not only feels like a different time, but a different country.
"That's my memory of that time – the rules were everywhere. But you just got on with it, I suppose. Catherine's constant sensation is of being in trouble and I think that was the overriding sense for a young woman at that time – you mustn't get in trouble, which was a euphemism for getting pregnant. More generally it was, don't be trouble; don't make trouble; don't get in trouble. The ways you could do that were manifold – basically just by walking around! Somehow just by being in a young female body you were causing trouble or at risk of causing trouble so you needed to watch yourself and behave yourself."
Tender touches on the issue of mental health. As James' depression gets worse, Catherine is at a loss how to help him; her behaviour only exacerbates the problem.
"She is not mature enough to be there for him in the way that is necessary. Not because she is a shitty person, but she is young and it is a huge emotional burden. For all his charisma he is deeply depressed and she is the only one who knows that. It's too much."
Catherine seems to have some undiagnosed mental illness herself. MeKeon says this was not something she had intended to explore.
"I just followed her where she went but it doesn't surprise me that people think that. It wasn't part of my conscious thinking for her. She starts in this self-doubting, really anxious place and latches on to James. When things fall out of her control, the anxiety and paranoia escalate. One thing I was more consciously interested in exploring with Catherine was narcissism. She is a narcissist. She wants to take more than she is willing to give. But to think about her in diagnostic terms would ahve shut the character down.
"Mental health issues are becoming more discussed, but the novel is set in the '90s. It probably makes sense for there to be a character who is clearly suffering from mental health issues and yet for that not to be acknowledge or discussed – or even for the author not to have acknowledged it herself."
As the novel progresses, Catherine's desire to keep James close veers into emotional abuse. Was McKeon worried that people would see her protagonist as simply an overly emotional young woman who is too invested in romantic relationships?
"I wasn't worried that would happen. I was interested to see if it would happen and it has, but only with middle-aged male readers so far. The responses from women have been tremendous. The grumpier responses I'm getting are from men. I also have had wonderful responses from men, but I have noticed that there is an impatience with her. It's a 400-page novel told from Catherine's point of view. There are some readers who think, 'Why should I be expected to go everywhere with that little rip?' That's exactly the response I expected. Perversely, I take pleasure in that!" she laughs.
Grumpy readers would perhaps prefer Solace, which is written entirely from a male character's point of view. This, says McKeon, had not been a conscious decision.
"It didn't even occur to me to write a book from a female perspective. It is like a default mode of writing that I didn't even think about. It wasn't until long after that I wrote the novel that I realised it came so naturally to write from a male perspective and I had killed the women off. It wasn't until I stated working on Tender that I realised that. I am really fond of Solace, but what the fuck?"