Jean Rhys was a tragic person, but one hell of a writer. I don't think I've ever been as depressed by a book as I was by her earlier stuff (beats Thomas Hardy by miles).

To read this as a "women's novel" is to do it a great injustice. This is not a story about women, sexual opression, etc. To read it as such limits Rhys scope and genius. This is a story about the confining, declining nature of contemporary life, as well as a tale about the inability of humans to connect with each other.

Great works of fiction are not "about" men's or women's issues --they are about humanity and what we've lost and gained. Rhys is amongst the best at holding a mirror.

Rhys out Hemingways Hemingway -- she is brutal, conscise and clean, like a knife to the throat. She is truthful -- to the point of pain.

Read &quo! t;Mr. Mackenzie" then jump to Rhys' "Good Morning, Midnight." The pair say all there is to say about life in this century.

As someone who has read 50 of the so-called top 100 books, I would place Mackenzie in the top 5. Fitzgerald should have written this well! Gatsby can't hold a candle to Mackenzie.