The Night Watch
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Written by Sarah Waters.
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($25.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
A novel of relationships set in 1940s London that brims with vivid historical detail, thrilling coincidences, and psychological complexity, by the author of the Booker Prize finalist Fingersmith.Sarah Waters, whose works set in Victorian England have awards and acclaim and have reinvigorated the genres of both historical and lesbian fiction, returns with novel that marks a departure from nineteenth century and a spectacular leap forward in the career of this masterful storyteller.
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit liasons, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of Londoners: three women and a young man with a past-whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in ways that are surprising not always known to them. In wartime London, the women work-as ambulance drivers, ministry clerks, and building inspectors. There are feats of heroism, epic and quotidian, and tragedies both enormous and personal, but the emotional interiors of her characters that Waters captures with absolute and intimacy.
Waters describes with perfect knowingness the taut composure of a rescue worker in the aftermath of a bombing, the idle longing of a young woman her soldier lover, the peculiar thrill convict watching the sky ignite through the bars on his window, the hunger a woman stalking the streets for encounter, and the panic of another who sees her love affair coming end. At the same time, Waters is absolute control of a narrative that offers up subtle surprises and exquisite twists, even as it depicts the impact grand historical event on individual lives.
Tender, tragic, and beautifully poignant, The Night Watch is a towering achievement that confirms its author as "one of the best storytellers alive today" (Independent on Sunday).
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miss_read thinks this book is Excellent.
I loved, loved, loved, loved this book. It's my first foray into Sarah Waters' writing, and I admit I thought it might be a bit too lesbian-centric for me, but it wasn't at all. I have heard people say that this is the first time she's had male characters who are as important to the story as female characters, so perhaps that's true. In any case, I thought this was a brilliant piece of writing. I don't know why, but I'm always drawn to books set in or around World War II - not books about the war, necessarily, but books about ordinary people living their ordinary lives during that time.
The Night Watch is the story of four Londoners during and immediately after the war, and their interconnected lives. The book starts in 1947, in the unsettled post-war period. The book's other two sections go back in time, first to 1944 and then to 1941. I enjoyed this "backwards" telling of the stories because as Waters wrote, clues were dropped about the characters' lives, making me want to keep reading to find out how Duncan wound up in prison, what drew Viv to Reggie, etc. I think Kay was the most compelling character, a mannish lesbian who drove an ambulance during the blitz, but who later led a sort of bitter and oddly empty life. It was as if there was no room for her in the post-war world, as if she'd had a real sense of purpose during the war that was missing later. The only story to which I felt Waters didn't do justice, was Duncan's. Even now, I'm not sure what he did or didn't do that landed him in prison. Perhaps Waters meant to leave that vague.
Part of her brilliance as a writer is her attention to detail. When she describes the government typing pool where Helen works, the smells she writes about make it all come alive - the cigarette smoke, body odour, perfume and ink. And her descriptions of such simple acts as someone stirring a cup of tea are so effortlessly perfect.
To me, the book was all about destruction; the physical destruction suffered by London during the war, but more importantly the destruction people's lives suffer either at their own hands, the hands of those who love them, or because of something as large and powerful as war.