The Quiet Tenant

Although The Quiet Tenant is fictional, the author makes it a point to draw upon the underlying issues surrounding real-life crimes, and nowhere is this pattern more prominent than when “Rachel” finds herself in a life-or-death situation and recalls the case of Kitty Genovese, who was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York, in 1964 while a number of witnesses did nothing. A New York Times article reporting on the crime suggested that as many as 38 witnesses either heard or saw some portions of the attack but chose not to act. Although recent investigations have determined that number to be exaggerated, the story of Kitty Genovese’s death has become emblematic of what is known as the “bystander effect” and has inspired a multitude of psychological and sociological studies.

Though the “True Crime” genre has surged in popularity in the past few decades, resulting in an explosion of documentaries, television series, and podcasts, such crimes have always fascinated of the American public, standing as a grim warning as well as a source of curiosity. Like Kitty’s, the names of scores of serial killers and their victims have found a lasting place in the public eye, often achieving an almost legendary status within the realm of the macabre. Accordingly, programs such as 20/20 and Dateline, along with a wide variety of true-crime podcasts, work to capitalize on the increasing degree of mainstream interest in the topic. Such true-crime storytelling often sensationalizes the original events for entertainment purposes, casting the criminals, their targets, and the families of both into quasi-fictionalized characters in support of the larger narrative, which is often crafted as a cautionary tale to the audience at large. While such programs endeavor to paint a gritty, true-to-life picture of the original events, they also have a tendency to focus on the perpetrators of the crime instead of allowing the victims a voice.

Thus, with The Quiet Tenant, Clémence Michallon makes it a point to challenge this pattern by decisively denying the murderer any voice at all in the overall narrative. Instead, she chooses to tell the story entirely from the perspectives of the women that Aidan targets, and this stylistic choice compassionately emphasizes the targets’ thoughts and experiences rather than indulging in a ghoulish fascination with the murderer himself. Ultimately, the novel allows these women to tell their stories uninterrupted, and it also serves as an effective reminder of the presence of callous, cruel, and self-serving members of the population who are unscrupulous and unfettered in their exploitation of others.