After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

Brassai, Untitled, ca. 1930

By Jean Rhys, New York, WW Norton & Co., 1985

Julia Martin is in her mid-30s and living in Paris when Mr. Mackenzie dumps her.  She leaves for her native London where she confronts her sister who has a lived a life of middle-class, though impoverished, conformity.  Unable to earn a living--we also learn that she is divorced and her child has died--she asks former lovers for money.  Disappointed, she returns to Paris and her life resumes its pattern of drink, hotel rooms, and hurt feelings.  Julia is neither a successful member of Bohemia nor a bourgeoisie.  She drifts along on the edge of both worlds.  All of Rhys's heroines are betrayed, alone, and poor.