the silent patient the first three chapters alex michaelides

Theo’s story of coming upon Kathy telling her friends how they met ends, but he continues with his own memory of what happened later that night. Maybe the entire narrative he’s telling in this book is a performance, too. The statement “This was my cue” lets us know that he is in on the performance. They have obviously told this story together several times. Once again, notice what is actually going on here.

Theo’s narrative of Kathy’s performance continues: “No, but. This is a well rehearsed story that she enjoys telling with melodramatic effect. Kathy, an actress, is performing for her acting friends. “This part of the story needed careful handling to retain her audience’s sympathy,” Theo tells us.

Right walked in.’ Kathy looked at me and smiled and rolled her eyes. Kathy begins her story of the night she was at a bar with a guy she wasn’t really interested in “‘when suddenly it happened-Mr. “It was a story she enjoyed telling,” says Theo. Kathy is telling “a couple of fellow actresses” the story of how she and Theo met. Michaelides leads the reader along so scintillatingly that a large part of the pleasure of reading this novel lies in recognizing the significance of its stylistic details.Ī good example of how this process works occurs early in the novel, when first-person narrator Theo Faber joins his wife, Kathy, an actress, at a bar: “I went to meet Kathy at the National Theatre café on the South Bank, where the performers would often congregate after rehearsal” (p. When I posted about The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, I wondered how many people actually engage with the text of mysteries or thrillers instead of just skimming to find out how the story ends.

The silent patient the first three chapters alex michaelides