When Will There Be Good News?

When Will There Be Good News?

by

Kate Atkinson

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on When Will There Be Good News? makes teaching easy.

Patrick Brennan Character Analysis

Patrick is Louise’s husband, whom Louise describes as Irish, wise, and amiable. Patrick is a well-off orthopedic surgeon who was widowed when his first wife, Samantha, was killed in a car crash. He is relentlessly cheerful and health-conscious. Louise believes she isn’t good enough for Patrick and buries herself in her work to avoid him and his visiting in-laws, Bridget and Tim. At the end of the novel, Louise decides to leave him, although she’s pregnant with his child.

Patrick Brennan Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?

The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below are all either spoken by Patrick Brennan or refer to Patrick Brennan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past Theme Icon
).
The Prodigal Wife Quotes

He had no idea how sexually incontinent Louise had been in her life and she wasn’t about to enlighten him […] “A handful of guys — if that— pretty long-term relationships, really. Lost my virginity at eighteen to a boy I’d been going out with for a couple of years.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire. Louise was ever a good deceiver, she often thought that in another life she would have made an excellent con woman. Who knows, maybe even in this life, it wasn’t over yet, after all.

She should have told the truth. She should have told the truth about everything. She should have said, “I have no idea how to love another human being unless it’s by tearing them to pieces and eating them.”

Related Characters: Louise Monroe, Patrick Brennan
Page Number: 290
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire When Will There Be Good News? LitChart as a printable PDF.
When Will There Be Good News? PDF

Patrick Brennan Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?

The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below are all either spoken by Patrick Brennan or refer to Patrick Brennan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past Theme Icon
).
The Prodigal Wife Quotes

He had no idea how sexually incontinent Louise had been in her life and she wasn’t about to enlighten him […] “A handful of guys — if that— pretty long-term relationships, really. Lost my virginity at eighteen to a boy I’d been going out with for a couple of years.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire. Louise was ever a good deceiver, she often thought that in another life she would have made an excellent con woman. Who knows, maybe even in this life, it wasn’t over yet, after all.

She should have told the truth. She should have told the truth about everything. She should have said, “I have no idea how to love another human being unless it’s by tearing them to pieces and eating them.”

Related Characters: Louise Monroe, Patrick Brennan
Page Number: 290
Explanation and Analysis: