SOURCE: "In a Dark Wood," in New Society, Vol. 38, No. 734, October 28, 1976, p. 209.

In the following review, Gould admires the stories in Sleep It Off, Lady, observing that each "has something to say and says it with utter simplicity and stark economy. "

"It's as if I'm twins," says a young woman in one of the stories in Jean Rhys's new collection. And the author elaborates: "Only one of the twins accepted. The other felt lost, betrayed, forsaken, a wanderer in a very dark wood. The other told her that all she accepted so meekly was quite mad, potty."

This passage contains the essence of Jean Rhys's vision. The universe lours, the sky is the "colour of no hope," people are simultaneously smug and dangerous to know, nothing is quite what it seems—yet what can you do but accept? Did not Christ say, "Blessed are the meek: for they...