Status
Available
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Collection
Publication
Penguin Books Ltd (1991), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 144 pages
Description
For six months, Julia has lived alone in a drab Parisian hotel on an allowance from her ex-lover, Mr Mackenzie. When his cheques stop, Julia decides to leave France and return to London. Past her prime, exhausted by broken love affairs and addled by drink, Julia is tragically unable to find what she really wants - love.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Ganeshaka
Julia Martin, the protagonist of "After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, is a woman who is no longer quite young. She has relied on instinct and youth to supply her with both love and money. When instinct fails, and youth fades, men, then, fail her too.
She withdraws into a numbness that serves to bind her
Jean Rhys has several novels that treat this theme of a woman discarded. I think this is my favorite because here Rhys's sparse, matter-of-fact style achieves the highest level of intensity. Although, it's been some years since I read Kafka, I was reminded of how he uses a style of clinical detachment to create dread. It's as though we irrationally sense the author is speaking calmly in order not to frighten us. And that she may be frightened too.
She withdraws into a numbness that serves to bind her
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when she tries to escape. Rhys paints this portrait with elegantly simple lyrical strokes such as, "It was a mild day. The sky was the rare, hazy, and tender blue of the London sky in spring. There was such a sweetness in the air that it benumbed you. It woke up in you a hope that was a stealthy pain."Jean Rhys has several novels that treat this theme of a woman discarded. I think this is my favorite because here Rhys's sparse, matter-of-fact style achieves the highest level of intensity. Although, it's been some years since I read Kafka, I was reminded of how he uses a style of clinical detachment to create dread. It's as though we irrationally sense the author is speaking calmly in order not to frighten us. And that she may be frightened too.
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LibraryThing member bagambo
Brilliant book by a brilliant female writer - Jean Rhys. This book will not only make you cry and turn your mood sad, but it will haunt you once you finish it. It deals with depression, loneliness, and desperation. A must read of any Jean Rhys fan.
LibraryThing member Michaenite
Lonliness, poor social skills and alienation are the themes explored in this poetic and insightful short novel by Jean Rhys. The author depicts the pubs, hotels and homes of 1930s Paris and London in a sensitive psychological portrait of a damaged young women.
LibraryThing member Lukerik
Beautifully written. There are sentences like this from chapter 9:
“Julia watched the shadows as they passed – the angular shadows of houses and the dark, slender shadows of the leafless branches, like an uneven row of dancers in the position 'Arabesque'.”
There are also loads of antitheses.
Julia's a superbly drawn character. She's a weird, selfish parasite. So well drawn that I found the novel frustrating and disturbing while at the same time enjoying it.
“Julia watched the shadows as they passed – the angular shadows of houses and the dark, slender shadows of the leafless branches, like an uneven row of dancers in the position 'Arabesque'.”
There are also loads of antitheses.
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The novel's packed with them, but in the architecture rather than the sentence structure.Julia's a superbly drawn character. She's a weird, selfish parasite. So well drawn that I found the novel frustrating and disturbing while at the same time enjoying it.
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LibraryThing member Steve38
A curious book. Short, unsure of its destination. Middle class penniless woman drifts from loan to loan from ex partners. Removed from its time does it have anything to say?
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
This summer I read the four Parisian novels of Jean Rhys: Quartet (1928), After leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the dark (1934) and Good morning, midnight (1939). In their time none was particularly successful: they describe the horrible situation of a woman who can barely keep herself
I found After leaving Mr. Mackenzie the most readable, and also the most realistic. It describes the ship wreck of a life, as it may still happen today. The other books are less easy to understand in contemporary terms.
They are a painful reminder that the much romanticized life of the Left Bank of the 1920s - 30s had winners and losers. These novels depict the losers, too honestly to be enjoyable.
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afloat, as a model, a dancer, an escort or prostitute.I found After leaving Mr. Mackenzie the most readable, and also the most realistic. It describes the ship wreck of a life, as it may still happen today. The other books are less easy to understand in contemporary terms.
They are a painful reminder that the much romanticized life of the Left Bank of the 1920s - 30s had winners and losers. These novels depict the losers, too honestly to be enjoyable.
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LibraryThing member mkfs
Not a likeable character, nor a really sympathetic one, but certainly believable and original. Rhys does cut to the bone, doesn't she?
LibraryThing member burritapal
A beautiful woman who is young can get men to take care of her. What happens to a beautiful woman when she loses her looks and self-confidence? Unless you're married, and/or have money, you can become desperate and depressed. You begin to think about what the rest of your life will be like. Will
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you find someone to love you? How will you go on finding money to stay in the horrid boarding houses? Show Less
LibraryThing member proustitute
Quietly devastating.
LibraryThing member therebelprince
She spoke as if she were trying to recall a book she had read or a story she had heard and Mr Horsfield felt irritated by her vagueness, 'because', he thought, 'your life is your life and you must be pretty definite about it. Or if it's a story you are making up, you ought at least to have it
A strange, lonely, forceful novel, entirely in line with Rhys' canon. Julia Martin, the novel's central character, is a sort of down-at-heel Lily Bart, the heroine from Wharton's The House of Mirth. A woman reliant on the charity of others, especially men, never quite strong enough to continue on her own but also uncertain if, or how, she could do so anyway. Flitting between a lonely London and a lonely Paris, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie is a study of those lost in the cracks of society, of the kind of cafard found in late 19th century naturalist paintings, and of the slow urban isolation felt, then, especially by women, and now, perhaps, by many more of us?
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pat.'A strange, lonely, forceful novel, entirely in line with Rhys' canon. Julia Martin, the novel's central character, is a sort of down-at-heel Lily Bart, the heroine from Wharton's The House of Mirth. A woman reliant on the charity of others, especially men, never quite strong enough to continue on her own but also uncertain if, or how, she could do so anyway. Flitting between a lonely London and a lonely Paris, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie is a study of those lost in the cracks of society, of the kind of cafard found in late 19th century naturalist paintings, and of the slow urban isolation felt, then, especially by women, and now, perhaps, by many more of us?
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Language
Original publication date
1931
Physical description
144 p.; 7.72 inches
ISBN
0140183426 / 9780140183429