This is a further (mini) contribution (not my usual two-work blog post) to Jean Rhys Reading Week, hosted by Jacqui at JacquiWine’s Journal and Eric at Lonesome Reader. Do check out their blogs and join in!
This time I’m looking at Sleep It Off Lady (1976) which is Rhys’ final collection of stories, published 3 years before she died. The stories are presented in a chronological order of the age of the protagonist, so it almost feels like a dipping into and out of someone’s life at various points; from the two young sisters living in Dominica in the first story Pioneers, Oh Pioneers to the young woman in Paris in Night Out 1925, to the elderly woman living alone in the titular penultimate story.
This approach is not dissimilar to her longer fiction, such as Good Morning Midnight, which used stream of consciousness to build up a picture of a life from fractured parts. All the things I enjoy in Rhys’ longer fiction are evident in her short stories. For example…
Her humour used to highlight a serious issue – such as mental illness encountered by repressed Edwardian Brits in the colonies:
“‘If,’ said Mr Eliot ‘the man had apologized to my wife, if he’d shown the slightest consciousness of the fact that he was stark naked, I would have overlooked the whole thing. God knows one learns to be tolerant in this wretched place. But not a bit of it. He stared hard at her and came out with: ‘What an uncomfortable dress – and how ugly!’ My wife got very red. Then she said: ‘Mr Ramage, the kettle is just boiling. Will you have some tea?’” (Pioneers Oh Pioneers)
Her unblinking look at sexual politics which degrade women and empower men. This takes an even darker turn when she documents the sexual assault of a twelve year old (this is written very sensitively and not at all gratuitously, but neither does it let the reader off the hook – we can’t ignore what has happened):
“He talked of usual things in a usual voice and she made up her mind that she would tell nobody of what had happened. Nobody. It was not a thing you could possibly talk about. Also, no one would be believe exactly how it had happened, and whether they believed her or not she would be blamed.” (Good-bye Marcus, Good-bye Rose)
And her startling observations that disconcert yet articulate something fundamental:
“But it was always the most ordinary things that suddenly turned round and showed you another face, a terrifying face. That was the hidden horror, the horror everyone pretended did not exist, the horror that was responsible for all the other horrors.” (The Insect World)
I’m so glad I took part in Jean Rhys Reading week as it encouraged me to explore this writer much sooner than I otherwise might have done. I’ve no idea why, having rated Wide Sargasso Sea so highly when I first read it in my teens, I allowed Rhys to slip off my radar. Her writing seems drawn directly from her life yet she is able to explore themes that you don’t need to be an ex-colonial, chorus girl, artist’s model, thrice-married Parisian who is friends with Ford Madox Ford to find meaning in (at least I assume so, since that’s basically my life in a nutshell).
“Very widespread now – heart condition.” (Sleep It Off Lady)
I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of her work, I only wish there was more of it.
Jean Rhys (1894-1979)
Lovely review Madame B – these sound fabulous so I’m really glad her short stories are going to be republished!
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Thanks Karen 🙂 Yes, it’s great news isn’t it – hopefully indicative of a renewed appreciation of Jean Rhys!
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Again, I wonder why there has been no Rhys in my reading history.
The quote from Good Morning Midnight brings to mind a particular scene in the movie version of Room With a View, where Cecil is leading the ladies on a country ramble and the come across Freddie et al bathing in a pond. It’s that perfect Edwardian humour.
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I feel the same – I’ve no idea why, until #Reading Rhys came along, I’d only read Wide Sargasso Sea. Jacqui posted that Penguin are reissuing her collected stories soon, so hopefully she’ll get a lot more attention.
I’d forgotten about that Room With a View scene – you’re so right – the horror of unexpected nudity 😀
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I’m going to have to head to the library to hunt down Rhys – nothing available on Kindle and when I had a look at my bookshop today, nothing there either (perhaps the reissued Penguins will take a while to filter to Australia??).
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Hope the library come up trumps! I think Jacqui said the reissue is scheduled for March, hopefully not too long a gap between UK and Australia. Mind you, I felt like it took forever for The Natural Way of Things to come here…
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I love her. A tragic life, though. Thanks for the reminder – I have to re-read some.
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She is great. Her life was hard, but she survived – like her protagonists. I think this is part of what makes her writing so powerful.
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I read that when she finally received some recognition for her work, late in life, she said it was ‘too late’. 😦
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Yes, I heard that – so sad. A glimmer of hope is that she had a very dry humour so I hope this was an example…
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I suspect she meant it. Great writing or not, that was a shitty way to have to live: poverty stricken and precarious.
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Too true – tragic .
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Delighted to see an extra post from you as part of our #ReadingRhys week, thank you! I like you way you’ve highlighted some of the different facets of her work, especially the touches of bleak humour she uses every now and again. It’s a very particular flavour, almost ironic in some ways.
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Yes, it is almost ironic. It’s very dry and not always easy – it’s doesn’t sweeten the pill! I really like how she uses humour, it’s challenging & captures the complexity of situations.
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I think you’ve hit the nail on the head as to why I love her so much: ‘her startling observations that disconcert yet articulate something fundamental’. You think you know what to expect, how her characters will react, what they think, and then they surprise you and make an observation which is at once so subtle yet so savage and profound.
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Savage is the word I’ve been looking for – thank you! This week I’ve been trying to find the adjective I needed to explain the type of beauty her writing provides: savage is it, absolutely.
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I’m loving all these reviews and seeing the different reactions to Rhys’ work. Lovely review.
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Yes, it’s great isn’t it? The week’s worked really well I think 🙂 It’s been so interesting reading reviews etc across the breadth of one author’s work.
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Lovely review. I really must pick a Rhys soon. How nice that she wrote short stories as well
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy Rhys, she has a lot to offer 🙂
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I have never read any Rhys, but she is now definitely on my list, and she had wonderful hair!
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Hooray – I hope you enjoy her! She did have great hair 🙂
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Wide Sargasso Sea has been on my list for ages, and I don’t know why I haven’t picked it up sooner as well as this author’s other works. She sounds amazing. I wish I hadn’t been so busy this past week, it would have been fun to take part in this!
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It really was fun 🙂 It’s definitely inspired me to read more of her work. I highly recommend Wide Sargasso Sea, I hope you enjoy it!
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A bit late to the party but I’ve just finished my first of hers too, Voyage in the Dark – heart-breaking really, to see dreams so dashed, having left the idyll of island life in Dominica, only to find her status knocked down so low in the country of her dreams and fantasy’s, to be perceived as one thing on the outside and to be so foreign and misunderstood underneath. It’s a book that cries out to be discussed as I think is much of her work.
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I’ve got copy of Voyage in the Dark, I’m really keen to read it after ReadingRhys week. I totally agree, she deserves much more attention and discussion than she receives. Her work is so affecting and she’s so brilliant at articulating outsider experience.
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