Customer Reviews

The Night Watch

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By 1947, the war has been over for two years, but London is still reeling from the bombings and the deaths, and trying to convert to a post war economy. Everyday people struggle with finding their place in life. Kay drove an ambulance during the war and had a female lover Helen, but the men are back from the western front and so she is expected to quietly do female work or get married. Helen cannot deal with her past female lovers as she is filled with jealousy, but like Kay the men are back so she must return to the closet. Duncan spent the war in prison so though freed physically is incarcerated in his mind as he cannot let go of what happened to him during the war. Finally his sister Viv loves a married soldier, Reggie, who she feels returns her regard, but can never leave his wife. ----- - THE NIGHT WATCH is a superb look at WWII and its aftermath through the eyes of ordinary people expected to return to normalcy now that the hostilities are over. The story line reverses chronological order by starting in 1947 (after the war is over) going back to 1944 (the end seems in sight) and finally 1941 (the war has just begun and looks dark and foreboding). The cast is powerfully drawn so that the audience can observe how each member of the ensemble and others who touched their lives struggle with going back to who they were in the 1930s when they have seen and done so much. I also highly recommend ;The Quest by Giorgio Kostantinos.

Very good book from Sarah Waters. However, it is not as good as Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith. I would recommend it to anyone who loves the work of Sarah Waters.

I found this book a little hard to follow because it presents the characters and their lives at one point in history, but then it goes back in time from there, a couple of times in fact, and that was odd.
Overall, I found the characters and their lives very interesting and diverse. I love history, and the fact that it is set in WWII time, intrigued me.
Overall, a good book. If you can get really engrossed in the characters in the first part of the book, as I did, then you'll probably enjoy it also!

Sarah Water's the Night Watch is a great book about love (both for self and others) and loss. I found the characters extremely complex and extremely relatable.

I loved being able to view the chaos of war and its aftermath on those on the fringes of society in 1940s London, lesbian lovers, conscientious objectors, "masculine" women, "feminine" men. After reading this novel I couldn't help but think about the sacrifices others have made and how lucky I am to be living the life I am living. I think this may be the most covertly feminist novel I have ever read and I applaud Waters for this immensely.

This book has also helped me to get a sense of life in London after WWII and what it was like for those living amidst the rubble, something I had never given much consideration to in the past.

I have recently read a few books written in reverse chronological order and although I do find it more challenging to read, it certainly can make what I have read more poignant in the end as is the case with this novel.

This is not a quick or light read, but strongly worth the time to absorb. I found it took me much of the first section to get to the "I can't put it down" phase, but when I got there I was "in-deep". I would highly recommend this novel and am eager to read other Sarah Waters works.