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53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
An involved historical drama with human interest, 11 Sep 2006
I loved this book. I should declare a fondness for involved historical dramas with human interest, so perhaps The Night Watch had a starting advantage.
The novel, set in 1940s London, followed various young people through the war and the immediate aftermath: Kay, Julia and Helen - three gay women; Reggie and Viv - a soldier and his mistress; and Duncan - Viv's mixed up brother. The characters are rich, and the secondary characters are no less vivid. The novel has space - six years, nearly five hundred pages, and a widely drawn cast which allows for a lot of plot development and intrigue.
The detailing is superb, with scenes described to perfection. This is never overbearing, but the beauty is in the clarity. And there is humanity and humour amongst it all. It is interesting to contrast the impact of the occasional terrorist incident today and the nightly bombing, killing and devastation that people endured only 60 years ago. And it was especially interesting to reflect on the helplessness that prisoners must have felt, unable to seek safety or shelter as bombs dropped around them.
Sarah Waters uses perfect judgement, too, in addressing homosexuality in 1940s Britain in such a subtle and caring way. She focuses on the people and the love, rather than the sex and the scandal. This is a rare feat that her male counterparts could learn from.
The novel is narrated in three chunks, in reverse chronological sequence. This gives it an odd feel, and I am sure we will all have preferences about which chunk we felt most engaged with and how we might have ordered it. Personally, I preferred the middle: the 1944 chunk. Its ending, as ambulancewoman Kay discovers the fate of her lover Helen, is my personal emotional crescendo. I found the 1941 section rather a let down coming straight afterwards. But we must judge the novel as it is ordered, for right or for wrong. And for me, it is an engaging, page turning epic that offers real insight into aspects of 1940s Britain that have been forgotten.
I'm off to read Sarah Waters other works now...
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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Just superb, 28 Sep 2006
This is my first foray into Waters territory, and what a wonderful experience it was. At first I found the atmosphere a little gloomy and overcast, the characters rather macabre, but I was soon won over by the sheer brilliance of the writing. Waters ought to be used a paragon in all creative writing classes. The woman does not put a foot wrong. Her language, while never flamboyant, is so perfectly poised that reading her words is like watching a film, so exactly do they conjure up what she is describing.
The characters were so vivid, so unforgettable, so touchingly human, that I felt quite bereaved when I came to the end. But even more compelling was Water's evocation of wartime Britain, and London during the air raids. It was truly like being there yourself.
In short, quite, quite wonderful. Merits every superlative you can think of.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Still Waters run deep, 23 Nov 2006
This was my first time reading a novel by Sarah Waters, and I was really impressed with her storytelling talent. The novel tracks an ensemble of characters during WW2, each one of them involved in an unconventional sexual relationship. The period and setting were vividly evoked, and the simple direct prose carried deceptively deep characters and incidents.
"The Night Watch" has a very engaging structure. It is divided into three sections, each one delving farther into the characters' pasts. I was surprised by how effective this technique was, as it probably made me more curious to find out what happened before than in a conventional novel where the author tries to make the reader curious about what happens next.
However, I felt that the novel's only major failing was that its "climax" - i.e. the stories' genesis - was the weakest of the three sections. It contained no major surprises when perhaps I was anticipating some quite startling twists.
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