Artie’s suicide attempt

Artie Lewin’s suicide attempt is a turning point in the account of his crisis: a threat that had frightened Erica Small becomes an actual attempt, and his survival brings professional care but not immediate relief from the guilt felt by those close to him. The event unfolds against the end of Artie Lewin and Erica Small’s relationship and exposes how each of his friends understands, after the fact, what they believe they might have done differently.

Background and Warning Signs

Erica Small describes a frightening episode in which Artie Lewin locked himself in her bathroom and threatened to kill himself. Afraid that he meant it, she went downstairs to seek Katherine and Michael Wagner. She did not reach them then; when she returned to her room, Artie Lewin was sitting on the bed, fully dressed. After a long silence, she told him she did not want to see him anymore. He accepted the decision in calm, measured terms, a response that struck Erica Small as if he were performing a role. Her account captures both the seriousness of the threat and the disturbing contrast between that crisis and his composed manner afterward.

The relationship had already reached a breaking point. Erica Small had told Artie Lewin on Saturday night that they were through, while still caring about him as a person. On Wednesday afternoon, when he was waiting outside her home, she told him she had meant what she said and did not want him coming around anymore. She later regretted the way she had ended things and wondered whether she should have waited. This context explains the guilt that follows the attempt, but the account does not establish that the breakup caused it.

The Attempt and Immediate Outcome

On Thursday morning, which was Michael Wagner’s birthday, Artie Lewin attempted suicide by hanging himself from the shower curtain rod in his bathroom. The rod broke, and he fell into the tub. He survived, though he sustained a concussion and cuts and bruises. After receiving stitches at Overlook Hospital, he was transferred to Carrier Clinic, a private psychiatric hospital near Princeton.

The outcome turns on an abrupt interruption: the fixture fails, and the attempt does not end in death. The sequence moves from Erica Small’s account of a threat and a later separation to a concrete emergency requiring hospital care. The transfer to Carrier Clinic marks a change in the response to Artie Lewin’s crisis: he is now receiving the kind of professional help Katherine had believed he needed.

Guilt and Aftermath

Michael Wagner and Erica Small both blame themselves. Katherine tells them that the attempt may at least make it possible for Artie Lewin to receive professional help, but neither accepts her reassurance. Their reactions are distinct. Michael Wagner focuses on an earlier car ride home on Saturday night: he knew Artie Lewin wanted to talk, but, preoccupied with his own problems, pretended to sleep. He regrets not listening and imagines that he would respond differently if he could repeat the evening.

Erica Small focuses instead on ending the relationship. She believes she should not have done it in that way and wonders if she should have waited. Her regret does not erase the stated circumstances of the separation: she had told Artie Lewin that she meant to end the relationship, still cared for him as a person, and did not want him to keep coming around. The aftermath therefore places two friends’ retrospective self-accusations beside the limited evidence available to them; neither can know that a different choice would have prevented the attempt.

Significance in the Narrative

The attempt interrupts what would otherwise have been a birthday occasion for Michael Wagner. Katherine gives him his present despite the group’s distress, writing that it is meant to keep him warm next winter until they can be together again and signing the card as a lasting promise. Michael Wagner says he will wear it every day. The gift’s affectionate message sits beside the uncertainty surrounding Artie Lewin’s survival and treatment, making the birthday a moment in which ordinary intimacy continues without resolving the crisis.

The event also changes how earlier moments are remembered. Michael Wagner’s silence in the car and Erica Small’s decision to end the relationship become, for them, possible points of responsibility. Katherine offers a different frame, emphasizing the need for professional care rather than treating either friend’s regret as proof of blame. The attempt thus has consequences beyond Artie Lewin’s hospitalization: it exposes the limits of what his friends knew, and the painful tendency to reinterpret those limits as personal failure.