Good Morning, Midnight

The novel begins in medias res, or in the middle of the action, in a hotel room where an unnamed first-person narrator has been staying for five days. The narrator recalls getting a drink the night before and how she cried openly in the bar, much to the chagrin of the other patrons. She states that she began to cry because of “something I remembered” (10).

Sasha, the narrator, has been sent to Paris by her friend Sidonie, who shares her concerns over Sasha’s mindset and well-being because she is “getting to look old. She drinks” (11). Sidonie makes arrangements for Sasha to return to Paris, where she once lived, and purchase new clothes.

Sasha struggles to fall asleep and recalls memories of her time in Paris over a decade ago. She mentions a man named Enno and how she changed her name to Sasha years ago. Still suffering from insomnia, Sasha takes Luminal, a sleep aid, and falls asleep instantly. She dreams of traveling through a busy tube station in London. The crowded tube station displays signs that read “This Way to the Exhibition” (13). Sasha, attempting to separate from the crowd, looks for an exit; unable to find a way out, she continues to “walk along with my head bent, very ashamed, thinking: ‘Just like me—always wanting to be different from other people’” (13).

The dream shifts into an image of man in a white nightshirt who claims to be Sasha’s father and who repeatedly shouts “murder” until, eventually, Sasha picks up this chant and awakens.

Sasha exits the hotel the next morning with money to spend and enters into an inner dialogue that warns Sasha to be careful: “Don’t get excited. You know what happens when you get excited and exalted, don’t you?” (15). Sasha reiterates to herself her plan to live by a strict schedule of “Eating. A movie. Eating again. One drink. A long walk back to the hotel. Bed. Luminal. Sleep. Just sleep—no dreams” (16).

As she travels through Paris, she dives back into memories of her time there. She remembers a job at a French dress-house where she worked for three weeks. She recalls the arrival of Mr. Blank, the manager of the London branch: He questioned Sasha for only speaking English as well as for the gaps in her employment history. Sasha explained that she had been living in Paris for eight years and previously worked as a mannequin for another shop approximately five years ago for three months before leaving and not working again until this most recent job. Shaken, Sasha hoped this would satisfy Mr. Blank’s suspicion.

Mr. Blank soon called Sasha back in to speak with him as he wrote a letter; in French, he instructed Sasha to deliver it to the cashier. Sasha misinterpreted Mr. Blank’s use of the French word for “cashier” due to his poor pronunciation and ran through the dress-house searching for the recipient in a panicked state. Defeated, Sasha returned to Mr. Blank for clarification. He berated her and called her a fool, which resulted in Sasha bursting into tears and locking herself in a fitting room. When she emerged, Sasha expressed her desire to leave under the guise of feeling ill, received 400 francs from Mr. Blank, and left to return to her hotel.

Back at the hotel, Sasha overheard the conversations at the front desk, avoided the leers of the man next door, hid from the gaze of a woman dressing in the building across the street, and slammed her door in the face of a menacing chef who accosted her. Sasha went to find another hotel but relented after touring just one unsatisfactory room.

In the present, Sasha returns to a bar she used to frequent with Enno, whom she describes as “one of those people with very long thin faces and very pale blue eyes” (39). She references conflicting reports of Enno’s past: He was a college student preparing for medical school thanks to the patronage of a wealthy family member or thanks to his talent of playing cards.

Sasha relives a memory of returning to England one winter five years ago and recalls the embarrassment of her family, who repeatedly ask why she did not drown herself in the Seine River. Given a weekly allowance of two pounds and a room by a deceased family member, Sasha retreated into this room and declared that, “Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successfully. I want one thing and one thing only—to be left alone” (43). After some time, Sasha, who had now accumulated some of her inheritance, came up with “the bright idea of drinking myself to death” (43).

Back in the present, Sasha has a drink at the bar of her past and saves a menu “covered with sketches of little women and ‘Send more money, send more money’ […] written over and over again” (44). On her walk home from the bar, she encounters two Russian men who ask her to join them for a drink. Sasha leads them into a café, and they engage in deep philosophical discussion regarding the nature of humanity, love, and cruelty. She makes plans to meet up with one of the men the next afternoon. Sasha falls asleep to thoughts of dying her hair the next day.

The next morning Sasha begins her day by stepping out of her meticulously planned routine and entering a familiar restaurant called Théodore’s. Sasha observes the couples in the restaurant while fearing recognition. Two English women enter and recognize Sasha. They loudly question why Sasha has returned to Théodore’s. Sasha begins to unravel emotionally and clings to the minutiae of what color to dye her hair to maintain a sense of composure. Sasha fantasizes about confronting the English women, but she pays for her meal and leaves the restaurant silently.

After leaving the restaurant, Sasha sits in Luxembourg Gardens and watches the people passing by. She reminisces on an incident with a cat back in England. The cat, described by Sasha as “very thin, scraggy, and hunted, with those eyes that knew her fate” (54), belonged to a couple who lived above Sasha and who intended to euthanize it. Harassed by the male cats in the neighborhood, the cat ventured into Sasha’s apartment and stared at her mercilessly until Sasha shooed the cat away. She later learned that the cat wandered onto a road and was run over by a car.

Sasha contemplates whether she should keep her date to meet up with the Russian man for a tea; upon seeing how tired she looks, Sasha decides to skip the meeting. She stays in the gardens as night approaches and the gardens close. She returns to thoughts of dying her hair while comforting herself with the thought that, “Tomorrow I’ll be pretty again, tomorrow I’ll be happy again, tomorrow, tomorrow” (57).

Back in her hotel room, Sasha drifts into sleep and memories from her past. She recalls a memory of being pregnant and on the verge of birth. She arrived at a birthing house for poor women and went into labor alone, with only the companionship of a nurse. Sasha gave birth to a son and struggled to fall asleep as thoughts of “money, money, money for my son; money, money” (59) consumed her. In her state of anxiety, Sasha found it difficult to breastfeed her child, who “hardly cries at all” (59). The nurse wrapped Sasha’s post-labor body in tight bandages to restore its original form before childbirth. After wearing the bandages for a week, “there is not one line, not one wrinkle, not one crease” (61). Five weeks after this, Sasha’s baby died.

Sasha goes to the hairdresser and dyes her hair an ashy blonde. As the hairdresser works, Sasha reads a magazine that offers advice on how women can become thinner, find love, and even lift their breasts. After this, she returns to Luxembourg Gardens.

Sasha resolves to buy a new hat and a new dress. Instead, she sits and watches the people passing by in Luxembourg Gardens. She encounters one of the Russian men she met the other night. The Russian man shares that his friend was angry Sasha did not show up for their date the previous night. Originally from Ukraine, the man introduces himself officially as Nicolas Delmar; he lives in France as a naturalized citizen. He shares his name and phone number with Sasha. Nicolas and Sasha enter a philosophical discussion regarding the purpose of life and the lack of choice each has over their life. Nicolas shares his philosophy of life: One must take life as it comes rather than trying to make it something it is not.

Nicolas observes that Sasha seems to be very lonely—he prescribes his own method for dealing with the sadness by encouraging Sasha to force herself to go out and see people. Nicolas offers to introduce Sasha to a painter friend of his named Serge. They make an appointment to meet the next afternoon.

Sasha ventures down the Rue Vavin in search of a hat shop and observes two contrasting women in one shop. The first woman is “very disheveled” and tries on hat after hat with an expression that Sasha describes as “hungry, despairing, hopeful, quite crazy” (63). The second woman, a “smug” worker at the shop, services the first woman “with a calm, mocking expression” (63). Sasha enters one of the other hat shops on the street and allows the shopkeeper to choose a hat for her. Unsure about the hat herself, Sasha decides to trust this girl’s intuition, buys the hat, and wears it to dinner. At dinner, a man approaches her and strikes up a conversation.

Sasha, invigorated, heads to a bar called the Dôme despite her expressed conviction not to go there. At the Dôme, a man named René approaches Sasha and asks to go somewhere alone with her. She acquiesces, despite her suspicion that he’s only interested in her because she appears wealthy. René soon confesses that he feels a strong impulse to divulge his personal thoughts and feelings to someone and asks Sasha, “Have you ever felt like this—as if you can’t bear any more, as if you must speak to someone, as if you must tell someone everything or else you’ll die?” (73). Sasha recognizes this impulse as one she has sated before and asks René why he desires to talk to her. The man replies, “Because I think you won’t betray me” (73).

René, who claims to be French Canadian, shares his tale of escaping the French army through Spain. Sasha says she believes that he is Spanish and not French Canadian. Despite her initial resistance to René’s urgent pleas for help in securing new papers, she leaves the café with him and assures herself of her safety, as “he is out for money and I haven’t got any. I am invulnerable” (76). Sasha takes René to her local café; eventually, he escorts her back to her hotel and asks to come up to her room. Sasha refuses and wishes him goodnight.

Sasha awakens to a knock at her locked hotel door informing her of a phone call waiting for her. By the time Sasha reaches the telephone, there is no one on the line, although, “There was a monsieur, but the monsieur has gone” (81). Sasha retreats to her room.