Good Morning, Midnight

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Good Morning, Midnight - Rated
A bleak, compelling novel, detailing the despair of someone who has been battered and bruised by life. A strong element of how someone's problems can prevent them from ever taking an opportunity for happiness or emotional connection with another human being.

Recommended read from an author who has in my opinion written far better than Wide Sargasso Sea.

romanticism and loneliness of a Parisian gutter life - Rated
Paris is the city to get lost and drunk in. This can be seen by the amount of literature concerned with these two essential elements of life, and Jean Rhys has conjured up an exquisite example of the stream of consciouness 'life in the gutter' tale of a girl lost and alone.

At just the right length the novel concerns Sophia who has returned to Paris after an abscence in an attempt to rebuild her life. Unfortunately her life starts the spiral downwards as she wanders the streets and rests in the bars thinking of her past life and the events which have brought her this far.

In equal parts tragic and compelling this is an essential read for anyone who feels like drifting, drinking and dreaming.

so good it hurts - Rated
and it really hurts. this book is beautifully bleak. it is a journey through a lost womens mind and memory and self loathing. it builds up and breaks down so well, so poetically, so perfectly, that by the end you are affected deeply and longing to step back into this book and offer something to this perfectly dejected character. don't get me wrong, you won't come out of this suicidal, but you will come out of it very involved and moved

Delicately Violent - Rated
It is no wonder that after the publication of this novel people assumed Jean Rhys had committed suicide. It is a dark, introverted, soul-searching novel. It's brilliance lies in the compassion with which Sasha is treated. This is a woman who is unquestionably at the end of her tether. Life occurs almost unconsciously to her. She drinks non-stop and thinks of fashion before eating. But these aren't superficial choices. They are the few soft whispers of a woman about to go over the brink. Throughout the novel you are given brief glimpses of her past as a shop assistant and the troubles in her marriage. In themselves the troubles which result from them are not ample enough to drive a normal woman to such desperation. You feel that the reason for her state of mind is more the result of a profound neglect of her individual spirit by men. She is led on to believe in a progression of being, but is abandoned to clutch at the ghosts of her old haunts in Paris. This is a sharp contrast to the ideas that we have about artistic scene of Paris in this time period. It is a more sincerely concentrated personal experience than most accounts. It is interesting to think of the end in contrast to the jubilant yeses of Molly Bloom in Ulysses. Sasha's yes is one of doom and resignation to a world that has flown past her.

Despite its depressing character, this novel is a fascinating look at a tendency to sink into a psychological state often ignored. It is also a subtle portrayal of an identity built on a knife's edge. Luckily, Ms Rhys did survive this novel (however unhappily). It is a miracle that she did considering the violent lack of self worth of Sasha; to have imagined such a person must have been terrifying indeed.

The modernist female voice - GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT - Rated
Written at the height of the modernist movement, Rhy's 'Goodmorning Midnight' adopts the 'stream of consciousness' technique seen also in the work of Woolf and Lawrence. This style, which so successfully highlights the personal torments and lonliness of Sasha, Rhy's main protagonist also illustrates the rhythms and atmosphere of modern Paris. The book focuses on the thought process of Sasha, as she comes to terms with her life and faces up to her fears. Rhy's words tenderly and tentively illustrate the frustration, depression and isolation of a single foreign woman in a capital city. The deep concentration on the character of Sasha enables the reader to enter her mind and thus experience both her pain and her moments of joy. A rewarding and revitalising read.