Review: Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes

Reviewed by Morgayne

Although dark and often disturbing, Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood is considered a LGBT classic. Having seen it referenced in a number of academic non-fiction sources over the years it had been on my reading list for some time. I found Barnes’ poetic prose to be hypnotic and her character profiles were often breathtaking. Given the beauty of her writing, the privilege of crossing it off said list did not come easy as I also found it difficult to read and even harder to understand at times.

Nightwood is the story of the relationship between Nora Flood who works at the circus and Robin Vote who has recently left her husband and son. When Robin meets and moves in with Nora “every item in their home attest(s) to their mutual love” p. 61. Together they are a study in passion and yet Robin is drawn inexplicably to the seedy, night-world of Paris in the late 1920’s. Her driven need to wander and embrace other creatures of the night tragically wounds Nora who is emotionally entwined with her. Barnes perfectly understands the ghostly presence of a lover who is no longer there. “As an amputated hand cannot be disowned Robin was an amputation that Nora could not renounce p. 65.”

Nora is unable to let Robin go long after her lover has left and is living with Jenny Petherbridge, the emotional “squatter”. As an emotional “squatter” Jenny couldn’t fall in love “so she appropriated the most passionate love that she knew, Nora’s for Robin p. 75”. Nora finds herself roaming the shadowy streets in search of Robin and because she cannot understand the night she goes to see Dr. Matthew O’Connor who refers to himself as the god of darkness p. 134. The doctor is a disreputable scoundrel and steals from his patients as they lay sleeping. Nora asks him to tell her everything he knows about the night. But nothing he says helps her and later when he sees her out alone he says, “There goes the dismantled—love has fallen off her wall.”

Clearly, the author has a gift for skillfully stringing together strikingly-crafted characters with brilliant language and observations. Nevertheless, Nightwood was difficult to read largely because it was dark on so many levels. Historically it is set between World War I and World War II during a time when it was scary to be Jewish. Secondly, Barnes’ characters are drawn to the night time. But its not just about the clock, according to the doctor, it’s about “those who turn the day into night, the young, the drug addict…the lover who watches all night long in fear and anguish. They can never live the life of the day p. 101.” Her characters are twisted and tortured. Along with the levels of darkness, Barnes repeatedly uses unexplained French phrases and sometimes entire sentences and trying to decipher their meaning was cumbersome as well.

Although it is less than two hundred pages, Nightwood is a great human tragedy. Just a hundred and eighty pages, the weight of the characters far exceeds that of the story line. In the end it is still a romance and yet we are left wondering what happened with Nora and Robin. Djuna Barnes says it best, “Nora will leave that girl some day; but though those two are buried at opposite ends of the earth one dog will find them both.”

Frankly I did enjoy her scattered use of the word ‘gay’ during a time in history when it meant joyful. It speaks well of the author that I took the time to read Nightwood, twice, simply so that I could understand it. After all, this is a classic and we owe it to ourselves to seek out, whenever possible, lesbians in historical literature. I found a sense of personal pride having struggled through this challenging but rewarding novel.