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After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie | Jean Rhys
14 posts | 12 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
"It is a book that does not invite comparisons. . . . Its excellence is individual, intrinsic; it measures itself against itself."--Saturday Review of Literature
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Twocougs
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Pickpick

I cannot say this is a feel good story but wow, it‘s intense and beautifully written. I kept thinking about the time it was written and how the protagonist would have felt and been treated 😢

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merelybookish
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Pickpick

Jean Rhys, the writer of discarded women. The novella begins as Julia must figure out her next step. Her most recent gentleman/companion has ceased payment on her hotel. On a whim she returns to England where she faces various indignities. Julia wanted more than respectable impoverishment, but in her 30s, as her beauty fades, is paying the price. Her scraping by is hard to read but this is a sharp indictment on the coldness of society. Rhys's 👇

merelybookish prose is beautiful and penetrating. I was struck at her ability to represent the mental toll life has taken on Julia. Writing depression, dissociation, and trauma in such an accurate way. Also her survival skills. It's a powerful piece of writing! 2y
merelybookish Have now read both my #bookspin and #doublespin for January. @TheAromaofBooks 2y
Leftcoastzen It‘s been on the pile for years , need to get to it! 2y
See All 9 Comments
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 2y
merelybookish @Leftcoastzen It's a short read and well worth it! 2y
batsy Excellent review! 2y
readordierachel "the writer of discarded women" I love that! 2y
merelybookish @batsy Thank you! Made me want to read more Rhys! 2y
merelybookish @readordierachel Thank you! Ive only read this and Wide Sargasso Sea. They are very different and yet both of the heroines could be considered 'discarded'. 2y
73 likes2 stack adds9 comments
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merelybookish
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"She was crying now because she remembered that her life had been a long succession of humiliations and mistakes and pains and ridiculous efforts. Everybody's life was like that."
No toxic positivity here.

batsy That's a bracing dose of Rhys 😭 And a lovely Penguin edition! 2y
Chrissyreadit And very very different from the tagged cover image @batsy 🤣 there isn‘t much of a synopsis but I swear it seems like two different books. 2y
batsy @Chrissyreadit Haha! Yes, the cover does seem at odds a bit with the bit @merelybookish quoted. 2y
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merelybookish @batsy @Chrissyreadit Arguably both covers capture something of the book but I vastly prefer the Penguin! Visually, and the mood is more accurate. 2y
merelybookish @batsy This is my second Rhys. Only ever read Wide Sargasso Sea. 2y
batsy @merelybookish Me too! I just follow a Jean Rhys bot on twitter that tweets quotes daily (that sound like this) and I definitely should read more of her. 2y
merelybookish @batsy Her insight into human character is brilliant albeit bleak. But I've been meaning to read her for years too! I will try to read more but she's definitely not a mood lifter. 2y
LeahBergen I love this cover! 2y
merelybookish @LeahBergen Yes me too! The covers for this one really range! 2y
BiblioLitten What a lovely cover! 2y
63 likes10 comments
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shawnmooney
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Ben of doomantidote and Shawn the Book Maniac discuss After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

No spoilers until 20:00!

doomantidote: https://youtube.com/user/doomantidote

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45894066-after-leaving-mr-mackenzie?ac=1&fro...

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shawnmooney
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https://youtu.be/y3g_ffvvTOc

Intro

Weekly Highlights

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

We, Jane by Aimee Wall

The Christmas Tree by Jennifer Johnston

Shout-outs:

LeahBergen Christmas fiction? You? Gasp! 2y
TrishB 😂😂 2y
26 likes2 comments
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Bertha_Mason

"The houses opposite had long rows of windows, and it seemed to Julia that at each window a woman sat staring mournfully, like a prisoner, straight into her bedroom."

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Bertha_Mason

"One of the customers was bawling at the waiter that the soup was muck, and the other diners were listening with shocked but rather smirking expressions, like good little boys who were going to hear the bad little boy told off."

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Bertha_Mason

"The girls were perky and pretty, but it was strange how many of the older women looked drab and hopeless, with timid, hunted expressions. They looked ashamed of themselves, as if they were begging the world in general not to notice that they were women or to hold it against them."

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Bertha_Mason

"Her eyes were very sad; they seemed to be asking a perpetual question."

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Bertha_Mason

Oh look, casual anti-Semitism. 😒

AmyG ☹️ 3y
Bertha_Mason That's the unfortunate thing about interwar white woman authors. 3y
3 likes2 comments
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Bertha_Mason

Late autumn is Jean Rhys season :D

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Tonton

These February book covers are brilliant, lovely, and I want to own every one!

https://lithub.com/the-16-best-book-covers-of-february-2/

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youneverarrived
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LeahBergen I'm intrigued! 7y
Leftcoastzen Love Jean Rhys! Have read "wide saragasso sea" need to read this one, there was a Norton collection published in the 80s with 5 of her novels in one book. 7y
youneverarrived @Leftcoastzen she's great such a good writer! I'm slowly making my way through her books. I read Wide Sargasso Sea earlier this year & loved it. 7y
35 likes4 comments
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Ellen_C
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Julia Martin's lover has just left her. Julia is an independent spirit, unusual for her time, but has limited options financially. She has relied on lovers for support over the years but sees difficulties ahead as she is growing older. Rhys examines not just Julia's plight but that of middle class women circa 1930 who lived on the edge of poverty. http://cannonballread.com/2016/09/sometimes-its-hard-to-be-a-woman/