A beautiful and bleak rumination on loneliness when a city offers no refuge, and one is forced to act their private psychic drama in public spaces.

"My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafes where they like me and cafes where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I never shall be, and so on."

Yes there are aspects of this book that are depressing but there is also humour and the writing is beautiful. A very modernist book, whose themes of loneliness, loss, relationships, trust and depression still resonate today.

Maybe the saddest I've ever felt reading a book, though not for melodrama or tired cliches, but for human suffering, all too tangible and real.

This has instantly become one of my favorite books.

I cannot believe Rhys has been so overshadowed within her literary canon. It's true that she did try to separate herself socially from the Lost Generation, but my God, her writing...how could anyone overlook her writing?

Maybe it struck me with such force because I read it on the same streets of its Parisian setting; I jumped when I read her character's foray into Luxembourg Gardens because I was sitting down in one of its pale green chairs at the time.

Rhys's writing is sad, poignant, powerful, and beautiful all at once.

If you break it down to its barest plot points, not much seems to happen. But so much does, especially within the psyche of our protagonist. Rhys expertly outlays the events that led to this broken point of despair and loneliness, and the events that lead up to the ending....I'm still processing the ending, in fact. At the final page I closed the book and sat on the bank of the Seine with my mouth open.

Rhys is able to capture the depression and anxiety that live within her protagonist so profoundly. Her decision to give up on living, to drink herself to death, is counterbalanced by the fact that she still cares about what people think of her, she still cares about what she looks like and how others judge her. You can palpably feel her anxiety in those moments, like when she is trying to impress the boss in the dress shop.

I could go on and on about this novel. Every portion was brimming with deeply profound reflections told through the narrative. The cruelty of which all people are capable - even children - , alcoholism and its pull, manipulation through sex and power...

Read it. Just read it.

While I didn't fully like Rhys' writing style as it often confused me, she depicted Sasha's feelings so beautifully that I often found my heart breaking for her and for the pain she was going through. There are those in life who are, all in all, lucky, there are those who learn to live with what they are given, and there are finally those who seem to have the worst of luck. Sasha is not only alone, but she is also lonely, and it is extremely sad to read that and know that she does not even know how to get the help that she needs. The novel was beautifully sad, and Sasha's feelings were extremely powerful.

''I have no pride -no pride, no name, no face, no country. I don't belong anywhere. Too sad, too sad... It doesn't matter, there I am, like one of those straws which floats round the edge of a whirlpool and is gradually sucked into the centre.''

This beautifully written book is the perfect stereotype of "literary" fiction: a depressed woman, financially well-off, mopes about early 20th century Paris and drinks herself silly. There are a couple of romantic flings as well. The mood is gloomy and the atmosphere dripping with psychic pain and dysfunction. Yet for all of this, I still come away with the impression that the book is beautiful. I have felt for this character, I feel as if I've weathered some of the storms she has. The novel has given me much to consider and even made me feel stronger for having read it. I understand if other people don't feel this way, and I also can't say what is it precisely that led me to such an emotional conclusion. Fortunately, it's a short one, and so it won't hurt anyone to go out of their way to find this book, give it a shot, and see if they feel as nourished by it as I do.

Oh, how I love being a woman.