[Jean Rhys] must have been one of the most autobiographical novelists there has ever been, and it is impossible not to believe that the psychological truth about her life is in her novels, as well as an unusually large proportion of facts, even if she changed these about a little….

So in a way [her autobiography, Smile Please,] is disappointing. If you agree that Jean Rhys was a great writer, then, of course, it will also seem important, as everything she wrote must be….

But it has a strange sting in its tail that cannot possibly be called exquisite or objective.