Lillian Pizzichini’s portrait of Jean Rhys is a melancholic, frustrating and indeed very blue depiction of the brilliant but disturbed writer, which offers a comprehensive, enlightened understanding of her movements and mental states throughout the years, but falls short of the challenge of depicting Rhys herself. This is no way Pizzichini’s failing, it is clear throughout ‘The Blue Hour’ that her source material (Rhys’ diaries, letters etc) is inconsistent, but this fact alone reveals much more about the subject than Pizzichinni’s attempts to colour in the blank spaces with suggestive prose. Inconsistency seems to dog Rhys long after her death, it appears that no critic can really provide an accurate summation of her masterpieces “Good Morning Midnight” or “Wide Sargasso Sea”; perhaps an irritation from a biography, but in some ways seems fitting for such an obviously troubled genius such as Rhys. Any woman who feels curious about her relationship with others, with alcohol, and with literature would benefit from the exploration of Rhys’s texts and could use Pizzichini’s illuminating biography as an introduction.
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