September 2025
    M T W T F S S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  

    I'm looking for a book where different characters having conversations quite literally hear different things and think they said different things, leading to various conflict, to highlight that sort of phenomenon. I'm picturing this book as being near-third where, as some near-third books do, a later chapter may replay a scene/conversation from an earlier chapter to let the reader know they're in the same time/location as before, just from the other perspective.

    I'm thinking of normal conversational misunderstandings, like one person might think this is how a conversation went:

    "You forgot the eggs, and you got the wrong kind of flour" she said, letting her disappointment for the meal she so carefully planned leak into her words.
    "Well sorry, you didn't tell me to get eggs, and why does it matter what kind of flour? Flour is flour!" he said dismissively.

    Then, from his perspective:

    "I asked you to get eggs and you didn't, and you got the wrong kind of flour!" she said in a demeaning tone, letting him know it was going to be a long night of arguing.
    "I'm sorry; I didn't know you needed eggs, and what's the difference between the flours?" he replied, angry with himself for letting her down and wondering how he was supposed to know what kind of flour to get.

    Obviously I'm not a writer so it should be better than this, but I think this sort of gets to the point – each person thinks they said one thing in one way, but the other person's brain sometimes hears and interprets something completely different.

    The closest example I've found to this is the TV show "The Affair", except that seems to be more about the two characters remembering events differently and not necessarily about the co-experiencing events differently (though I'm only on episode 3, so I could be wrong; no spoilers if I am!). (Edit) This show does one other thing my original idea didn't include though: the characters' stories outside the shared events – i.e. what else is going on in their lives which lends context to their different perspectives of the events.

    by iAdjunct

    Leave A Reply