The next day she goes to the hair salon, dyes her hair blonde, and returns to Luxembourg Gardens. As she struggles to fall asleep that night, she thinks about the loss of her five-week-old son. The next day, after being confronted by two women she recognizes from her past, Sasha does not meet the man for tea but instead sits in Luxembourg Gardens until nightfall. She promises to meet one of the men for tea the next afternoon. One night on her way home from the bar, she meets two Russian men with whom she engages in a night of banter and general frivolity. She reminisces on her failed jobs and avoids human contact as she grows increasingly concerned over the sneers of the ghost-like man staying in the room next to hers.Īs she finds herself returning to the cafés and bars she once frequented with her French husband Enno, Sasha dives deeper into her memories of the past, including her family’s disapproval of her return to England five years prior, after the dissolution of her marriage. She struggles to control the surge of emotions that overwhelm her and experiences bouts of public crying. Encouraged by her old friend Sidonie to visit Paris to revive her lost spirits, Sasha drafts a strict plan to avoid losing herself in her memories of Paris. The novel begins five days after Sasha Jensen’s return to Paris in 1937. Divided into four parts, Good Morning, Midnight includes several paragraph breaks to demonstrate a change in time and setting.

Written and set in a time of disillusionment, Rhys’s novel depicts characters alienated from their home countries who search for new beginnings in the rich setting of 1937 Paris. A modernist work, Good Morning, Midnight follows Sasha’s mind as she meanders through her traumatic past and harsh present. Told in first-person narration, Rhys’s novel explores the interwar between the two World Wars.

Jean rhys novel