Sasha Jansen is an English woman in her mid-forties, drifting through Paris in the 1930s on a small allowance from an old acquaintance. She drinks, sleeps badly, and wanders through cafes and cheap hotels, haunted by the loss of a child and a failed marriage. Rhys tells it in a clipped, interior voice that slides between present and past, letting Sasha's pride, shame and wit show through. A final encounter with a gigolo is all the more painful for its restraint.
Readers of modernist fiction, and anyone interested in how women's loneliness and money troubles have been written, will find a short, unsparing novel. It rewards a second reading once the structure clicks.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1939
- Language
- EN
