WAR TORN RELATIONSHIPS. (The Night Watch - Sarah Waters)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
Date:	29/07/06 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A little suspense.

Disadvantages: Too many characters badly drawn.

I have bought every book in print by this Author. Why ? I based my judgement on my experience of her works entitled “Fingersmith” and my favourite book, “Affinity”. Her descriptive work is astounding. What Sarah Waters achieved in her earlier books was to take every fragment of thought and reason, every emotion, dissect it, describe it and take the reader into the minds of her superbly drawn characters. This is a truly outstanding achievement for a modern writer, and I am not easily impressed. The former books were set against an historical background, and in this, Sarah Waters excels and the detail used is exquisitely believable.

“The Night Watch” is based in war torn England of the early 1940's, and tells the story in a strange, back to front manner, of the main characters, with little vignettes of detail of the people that play a part within their lives. The opening chapter tells you about who these characters are and the journey through the book tells you the path that lead the characters to being the way they are portrayed, giving sense and reason to their roles in the story. Much research was done, though somewhere along the line, the story failed, in that instead of concentrating on a couple of main characters, what the writer did was to try and create too many characters that come off the page like badly sketched individuals that simply do not work together to create a whole image.

Vivian is the faithful “doormat” character that meets her married serviceman in secret, and her devotion to him seems ill-founded and illogical. Vivians’ brother is possibly one of the better drawn up characters although in the early stages of the book, the reader is lead to believe him to be “different” to other boys of his age, although his difference seems to be in his sensitivity to others, rather than any ailment. His story is an interesting one.

The other girls that make up the story are Helen, who is portrayed as very sweet and naive, Kay, an ambulance driver throughout the war years, and Julia, who form a neat triangle of relationships past and present. Jealousy, love, passion, and needs are well described, although not sufficiently for me to have empathised with the characters or what was happening to them. I could not help comparing the relationships in this book with those portrayed in her earlier books, and there was a distinct lack of reason or logic, something that Sarah Waters is noted for in her other stories. It was hard for me to feel anything towards these ladies with their closeted love that would certainly have been scorned in the early forties, where the story is set. I felt this touched on unfamiliar territory to me as a reader, although Sarah Waters dealt with relationships between ladies in such a crystal clear manner in “Fingersmith” and “Affinity”.

This was a difficult period of British history, when homes and lives were being destroyed by bombings, and when things that we take for granted these days were rationed and in short supply, and perhaps in those days, priorities were different, although I feel that the writer failed in explaining to the reader what made that difference, as she had so cleverly in her other books.

For those who have read and loved “Affinity” and “Fingersmith”, the latter of which was made into a television series by the BBC, and who thrived on the intimacy of description and emotion within the written word, I would say to avoid this book. It will disappoint you. For those inexperienced and unfamiliar with the works of Sarah Waters, I would suggest starting with the other books mentioned before attempting this one. Her writing is amazing in both the examples shown, although this one was an unclear and cluttered mixture that just didn’t work.

Available from Amazon new at 10.18GBP in Hardback.
or 11.21 GBP for the signed limited edition.
Paperback from 7.99 GBP
Audio CD from 7.99 GBP

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd (2 Feb 2006)
Language English
ISBN: 1844082466

My recommendation : Borrow it if you must, but read her other works first.

Summary: Disappointing book from my favourite author.