Do You Remember?

“I feel another jab of pain in my right temple, but then it eases up, replaced by a dull ache at the base of my spine.”

When Tess wakes up on “Day One,” she repeatedly mentions the pain in her head; however, she mentions this other “ache” only once, likely because the ache fades, while the pain in her head continues. This is a clue that something else is going on: The ache doesn’t result from the same stimulus as the pain. Later, the novel reveals that Graham gives her injections in her hip every night after her seizure medication knocks her out. The mysterious, fleeting “ache” thus foreshadows the revelation about the hip injections.

“Graham’s hand is on my arm, and his blue eyes meet mine. He’s fairer than any man I’ve ever dated before—that was never my type. But he obviously won me over.”

Tess thinks it’s odd that she would marry someone like Graham because he isn’t the type of man she’s usually attracted to. Thematically, the second sentence suggests The Reliability of Intuition, while the third suggests The Relationship Between Memory and Identity. When she can’t remember falling for him, she doubts what she knows about herself.

“He’s attractive—objectively speaking—but I don’t feel anything for him.”

Compared to her instant love for Ziggy, Tess is struck by how she feels nothing for Graham except, at times, repugnance and fear. This thematically demonstrates The Reliability of Intuition. Every day, without exception, she experiences a surge of love for her dog and must talk herself into feeling lucky to have Graham.