The Night Watch

Critics

• Through the bomb-sites, backwards

  The Night Watch by Sarah Waters 480pp, Virago, £16.99 After three brilliant, much-loved novels about Victorian underworlds and young women discovering and reinventing their identities, Sarah Waters has turned to the second world war and its aftermath ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• Smoother than velvet

  The Night Watch by Sarah Waters Virago £16.99, pp480 Sarah Waters' first novel, Tipping the Velvet, opens, unforgettably, among barrels of oysters, some destined for the tables of Mrs Keppel and 'the old Queen'. And we haven't got far with this lates ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

• 3 people find this helpful

  

  After finishing Sarah Waters' The Night Watch, I immediately went out to buy all her previous works. The Night Watch showcased the talents of Waters, putting her in the same league as Ian McEwan and David Mitchell.

  The Night Watch is a story revolving around 4 persons in wartime England, name ... (continue)

  After finishing Sarah Waters' The Night Watch, I immediately went out to buy all her previous works. The Night Watch showcased the talents of Waters, putting her in the same league as Ian McEwan and David Mitchell.

  The Night Watch is a story revolving around 4 persons in wartime England, namely Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan. What makes the book so special is the structure of the story: it started in 1947 (the end of the plot) and ended in 1941 (the beginning of the plot).

  The relationships among the 4 protagonists were complicated. As the story was narrated backwards, you would solve many of the mysteries that you have read earlier on as you proceed along. It's a really fascinating and enjoyable experience.

  Meticulously researched, The Night Watch also gave a vivid and disturbing account of the bombing of London during WWII. Waters' writing is fluid and poetic. Among the 6 novels shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, this is my favourite. It's a pity that it finally lost to The Inheritance of Loss.

  Superb and highly recommended.

  P.S. Waters' works are of the homosexual genre. Some of the scenes in the book are quite explicit. Not for those who have got an issue with gay/lesbian writing.

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  Tracy W said on Mar 16, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 3 people find this helpful

  

  A departure from her earlier novels, because this story takes place during the Second World War and not in Victorian times.
  It is a gripping tale of lesbian love - anguish, jealousy - in a time of uncertainty.

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  Linda Wilke said on May 7, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  I did quite enjoy this. It started very slowly, the way the story was written she took excerpts from people's lives going backwards in time, 1947, 1943 and then 1941. So it started with people being miserable and then slowly discovering why. Overall it still felt a bit too modern and not really writ ... (continue)

  I did quite enjoy this. It started very slowly, the way the story was written she took excerpts from people's lives going backwards in time, 1947, 1943 and then 1941. So it started with people being miserable and then slowly discovering why. Overall it still felt a bit too modern and not really written in the time, in particular the way people talked and acted.

  While I enjoyed the characterisation I did feel that most of the characters were a little pathetic or annoying. The younger brother in jail in particular felt like a waste. But there were some rather brilliant scenes. The two women walking through the Holborn to the City in the blackout really stood out. There was definitely some interesting and intense things in this book though overall I felt it was lacking. I think this is largely my problem with historical fiction in general, particularly an era which is written about already by people who were there. But it seems to make much more sense to read books by people from that time than people imagining what that time was like, no matter how extensive their research. The historian in me just always prefers the primary literature.

  Having said that I will probably pick up her other novels as I come across them in second hand book shops as I do like books about lesbians.

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  Robot-mel said on Aug 25, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  I have to say that I love Sarah Waters... Tipping the Velvet is one of my favourite books of all times and Fingersmith is just...perfect. Given this, I was unable to stop and let this overwhelming admiration drain out before approaching another of Water's book. I approached the book not as one per s ... (continue)

  I have to say that I love Sarah Waters... Tipping the Velvet is one of my favourite books of all times and Fingersmith is just...perfect. Given this, I was unable to stop and let this overwhelming admiration drain out before approaching another of Water's book. I approached the book not as one per se but as one within a brilliant saga: the possibility of being disappointed were exceptionally high. And I felt a bit let down as it is not as thrilling as the previous two. It convey a more subtle set of emotions that slowly but steadily grow into you. Her prose though is still amazing: she can convey the smells the lights and the horror of London within war time. This is not only the result of her fantastic way of writing but also of her detailed and accurate research that, at the end of the book she, so generously acknowledge...
  title in Italian: Turno di Notte

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  Marina said on Jul 7, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  "...whenyou were well, you never thought about being well, you could only really feel what it was like to be healthy for about a minute, when you stopped being sick. But when you were sick, it made you into a stranger, a foreigner in your own land. Everything that was simple and ordinary to everyone ... (continue)

  "...whenyou were well, you never thought about being well, you could only really feel what it was like to be healthy for about a minute, when you stopped being sick. But when you were sick, it made you into a stranger, a foreigner in your own land. Everything that was simple and ordinary to everyone else became like an enemy to you. Your own body became like an enemy to you, plotting and scheming against you and setting traps..."

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  amusaur83 said on Jul 5, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (52)
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• English Books
• Hardcover 480 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1844082466
• ISBN-13: 9781844082469
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Pub date: Jan 01, 2006
• Dimensions: 1419 mm x 903 mm x 323 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Paperback, Audio CD and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani, Svenska böcker

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