Hair of the dog
The Woman in Cabin 10“Hair of the dog” is an idiom for drinking alcohol to relieve a hangover. In the novel, Tina West uses it not as a neutral explanation but as the opening of a brazen, sexually suggestive joke, making the familiar remedy part of her performance of provocation.
Meaning and Usage
The expression refers to taking another drink to counter the effects of drinking. Its conventional meaning gives Tina West’s remark the air of practical advice, but the context quickly turns that advice into a double entendre: she couples it with a proposed sexual encounter, presenting both as remedies.
Scene and Effect
Tina West beckons the narrator closer to share what she calls a secret. Her rings chink against her skeletal fingers as she delivers the line, then laughs when the narrator responds with noncommittal silence. The narrator recognizes that the remark calls for a reaction but withholds one; Tina’s follow-up—that she has shocked the narrator—makes the exchange a small contest in which the phrase serves as a calculated opening gambit.
