book review: good morning, midnight by jean rhys
Jean Rhys’ (best known for her Jane Eyre retelling Wide Sargasso Sea) Good Morning, Midnight (1939) deals with heavy topics, such as: sexual assault, depression, susicial ideation, and even infant death as a woman is plagued by otherness, isolation, and depression during her time in Paris. While the novel is incredibly depressing and tragic in some places, you root for Sasha as she struggles to fit in and keep herself alive.
It is clear that Sasha has internalized the gaze of others, and feels her own otherness viciously: “It shouts ‘Anglaise,’ my hat...And then this damned old fur coat slung on top of everything else-the last idiocy, the last incongruity.” She fears the powerlessness that comes with being the object of the gaze rather than the one who gazes. In this way, Sasha embodies everyone who has ever felt different and/or looked different from those around them. “Come on, stand straight, keep your head up, smile...No, don’t smile...I know this type.” She holds the weight of the world on her shoulders, as she recognizes those like her: those that society will not accept, those that no one seems to have time for, those who are alone. “I cry for a long time-for myself, for the old woman with the bald head, for all the sadness of this damned world, for all the fools and all the defeated.”
“I have no pride-no pride, no name, no face, no country. I don’t belong anywhere.” Having been previously abandoned by her husband and, inexplicably, unable to return to her family, Sasha stays in a hotel during her entire time in Paris and walks the streets alone. “If you have money and friends, houses are just houses with steps and a front door…”
Despite her profound moments of depression, Sasha clings to moments of happiness, and relishes in seemingly minor moments that give her joy: “I’ve never been so happy in my life. I’m alive, eating ravioli and drinking wine.” Sometimes it seems as if she has finally accepted herself, or the world for what it really is, but her sadness never truly leaves her (which is a realistic “When you aren’t rich or strong or powerful, you are not a guilty one. And you have the right to take life just as it comes and to be as happy as you can.”
Sasha sees the world, and the people in it, as machine, and herself as a living, breathing thing within it, unable to be completely a part of it. However, no matter how much she attempts to convince herself that she can be a part of the machine, she is proven to be human time and time again. “It’s all right. Tomorrow I’ll be pretty again, tomorrow I’ll be happy again, tomorrow, tomorrow…”