As part of my marathon reading, I read a short novel by French author Jean Rhys, "After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie". An English woman, Julia Martin, with a troubled domestic past, winds up in Paris, dumped by her "lover", Mr. Mackenzie. Mackenzie promises to keep her solvent and for a while does so, until his lawyer stops the payments. What happens to Julia as she sinks into depression and returns to London only to find her mother dying, and her relatives wanting nothing to do with her, is quite moving. Like "To Have and Have Not", there is a lot of alcohol in this book, but because of Julia's situation, her pernods seem more excusable than the booze they drank in Havana and Key West.
But who am I to judge?
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