The Silent Patient - A Review

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Alex Michaelides's "The Silent Patient" is a worthwhile and engaging read. It is a good book that comes close to being an excellent book. Alicia Berenson is a successful painter living in London with her husband, Gabriel, a fashion photographer. From the outside looking in, they have a perfect marriage. That is, until Alicia fires five rounds into her husband's face after he arrives home from work one night. Alicia is declared unfit to stand trial and is remanded to the Grove, a psychiatric unit in North London. She never speaks again.

First-person protagonist Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who leaps at the opportunity to treat Alicia. Several years after the highly-publicized murder, Theo transfers to the Grove. He is determined to rescue Alicia, to bring her out of her shell--to get her to talk again.

Theo is an artfully flawed character with a bruised past. Mr. Michaelides delves generously into Theo's childhood trauma, suffered at the hands of his father. The prose here is smart and yet patient, painting an eloquent portrait. The author describes how Theo met and fell in love with his wife, Kathy. The writing in the early chapters of the book is efficient and polished, and easily the novel's best prose.

As Theo begins his therapy sessions with Alicia (which basically entails him speaking and her sitting silently), it occurred to me that the story could go in many different directions. But it falls into a familiar murder-mystery formula, with Theo traveling around interviewing friends and family members of Alicia in attempts to unearth information about her past. Many of the book's chapters are annoyingly short, not allowing the narrative within each chapter to build momentum.

As the story progresses, Theo's home life begins to unravel. He discovers that Kathy, the love of his life, is having an affair. He begins tailing her as she goes off on her adulteristic escapades. He ultimately witnesses his wife engaging in sex acts with her illicit lover. Interestingly, Theo never confronts Kathy on her cheating ways, and seems rather content to ride out what is now a dead marriage. Would a normal man do this? Probably not. But Theo, I had to remind myself, was not a "normal" man. He'd been emotionally abused as a child, and the author may in fact have described a perfectly reasonable response for someone in Theo's position.

Meanwhile, Theo continues to learn more about Alicia--especially when she hands him her diary. It details her increasingly harried life the days and weeks leading up to the murder of her husband. She describes being watched and followed by a strange, nameless man. Gabriel clearly does not believe her. He thinks Alicia is displaying paranoid behavior and implores her to see a doctor.

The great narrative drive of "The Silent Patient" is our anticipation that Alicia will one day speak. That she'll open up to Theo and divulge what really happened the night of her husband's murder. I will say that she does eventually talk to Theo, but I won't say any more.

The book has a twist, of course, and its rendering is where the story suffers. A twist is a form of literary deception, and in this case the deception goes too far. It pertains to the chronology of one of the subplots--namely, that in which Theo discovers his wife is cheating on him. The reader processes this narrative as though it is occurring in real time with the rest of the story. Discovering that it wasn't was disconcerting--I was forced to think backwards and recalibrate the story's timelines. I was left a bit confused and feeling like I was lied to.

That said, the author wraps up the story very well. All the loose ends are neatly snipped and tied up. The book has a satisfying ending, and I enjoyed reading it.

"The Silent Patient" is an engaging and overall rewarding read. I would recommend it to others, with a caveat concerning the story's chronology.

What do you think?





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