Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Good Morning, Midnight is a difficult novel with lots of beautiful poetry in it. Unlike the usual stream of consciousness novels, which go about from one thought to another without warning and with the apparent lack of beauty in conclusion and ceremony in commencement, Good Morning, Midnight gracefully melts from one scene into another. In fact, it has been written in such a way that the protagonist's thoughts seem to become a part of the reader's thoughts and change their course just when you expect them to! The language is poetic, slightly humorous but in a dark way and very much similar to that of Margaret Atwood's style of writing. In fact, much like Atwood's works, the language in Good Morning, Midnight seems to make no sense at all at times!
Now coming to the Story:
Good Morning, Midnight talks about the immense grief and misery of Sophia Jansen, who has suffered much, lost much but has no one to share it with. In fact grief, self-pity and misery are so deeply rooted in her character that she hardly realises when she is feeling any different from what she usually does. The story starts with a dull, cheerless and dark note but ends with what seems like a spark of hope. However, what is commendable is, Good Morning, Midnight is perhaps one of the few sad and lonely stories which have the power to be deeply moving without being extremely depressing. The reader finds himself sympathisizing with Sophia's pain without experiencing it himself. Also, perhaps because the story is set in Paris, it has its own bunch of crazy artists, dirty streets and smelly bars and poor 'gigolos' in search of rich and pretty girls. Jean Rhys seems to be a voracious fan of descriptions and describes the sights, smells and odours so powerfully that a reader's imagination becomes as clear as if (s)he is watching a typical French movie, full of typically French characters and a bunch of French dialogues.

Of course it's not a book for everyone and maybe I wouldn't have liked it so much had I not admired movies like 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain' and books like 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'The Tent' because the ending is abrupt, the language is incomprehensible and vague, even crazy at times. But overall, Good Morning, Midnight is one of those rare stories, which despite your craving for something more sane and sensible, are good enough to be remembered and cherished because the very feel of them is pleasant, despite their mood or tone!

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