‘I Used to Live Here Once’ is a haunting short story penned by West Indies born writer Jean Rhys.
Rhys lived a bohemian lifestyle in London and Europe. She is remembered for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea. She always felt an outsider both in West Indies, her place of birth, and England, where she moved to gain an education. This sense of alienation can be seen in the short story ‘I Used to Live Here Once’ penned by Rhys. Here too, there is an element of separation, separateness, and alienation of the narrator. She is unable to contact or speak to two white European children, standing under a mango tree near a house in West Indies where the narrator claims she had lived.