Jean Rhys thought that it was "idiotic to be curious about the person" of a writer, so when she embarked upon [Smile Please] at the age of eighty-six, she did so only to clear up the misunderstandings that invariably arose from her admittedly autobiographical novels…. [She has] left us the best kind of personal account. Fragmentary, impressionistic, and often quite guarded, Smile Please is always incandescent with the fascinating personality and unusual life of its author….

The second half of Smile Please, an account of Rhys's early adult years, has been drawn from a diary, drafts, and notes which she was gathering, and is absolutely clear on one point: though Rhys may have been guilty (as she accuses herself) of most of the mortal sins, she was never threatened by the worst, "coolness of heart." Through glimpses of her [life as a young woman] …, we begin to see...