1. How would you describe Alicia Berenson and
the life she has lead up to the time she kills her husband? What was
your initial sense of why Alicia refused to speak?
2. Alicia's self-portrait is entitled Alcestis, based an
ancient Greek Eurpidean tragedy, which in turn is based upon Greek
mythology. Do a bit of research into the myth to find out what Alicia
might have been saying about herself in her portrait. What, in other
words, does the painting reveal about the painter?
3. Follow-up to Question 2: The author once took a post-grad
course in psychotherapy and subsequently spent a couple of years working
part-time in a psychiatric unit like the Grove. What does Michaelides
mean when, in 2018, he said in an interview with the Bookseller.
I saw how the world of psychotherapy might be
the perfect modern setting to reimaging [Alcestis'] story and explore
its themes of death, guilt and silence
.
4. Follow-up to Questions 2 and 3: Do
you begin to see Alicia as a mythic character, a parallel to Alcestis?
If so, in what way?
5. The author has created his own challenge: he must gradually reveal
Alice to readers (and to Theo) without allowing her to tell her own
story. How does Michaelides use Alicia's physical appearance and artwork
to reveal her character?
6. What do think of Theo, initially, as he begins to work with Alice?
What do you come to understand about him, and his motivation, as the
book unfolds? In what way does your view of Theo change?
7. Were you shocked by the big reveal at the end? Or did you see it
coming?
8. The Silent Patient is called a psychological thriller, but
the reviewer of Crime by the Book blog
considers it an in depth character study in which both characters'
identities take precedence over the actual crime. In what genre would
you place the book—character study or plot-based thriller? (It's
presumably "both," but let's say you have to choose one or the other.)
* Some questions from
LitLovers.