Review: "The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters

I cannot think of any other writer today who is able to collect such accolades and awards for simply telling a simple story with very little social context than Sarah Waters, whose novel The Night Watch, is a great example of bridging the gap between writing talent and narrative gifts. While she writes stories and books that are not my thing most of the time, I totally see why she is so widely read. None of them really tries to do anything special besides whisking the reader off on a Victorian adventure, but she does a damn good job of it, and despite her books being perfect under a hot sun surrounded by sand, she is collecting award nominations like crazy, and it is just a matter of time before she wins something big like The Orange Prize, or, eventually The Booker Prize, which her last three novels were nominated for. The Night Watch focus on four different characters, three women and one man, whose lives are recounted in reverse, from the end of the 1940’s to the beginning of the decade in the heart of WWII. They struggle with kept secrets that are the key to their truer, hidden selves. Like most Waters’ novels, the theme of homosexuality is brought up, mainly in the case of the male character Duncan, and the relationship between two of the women, Kay and Helen. The key to their secrets are held by one another, and their brief connections made during that tumultuous time during the war. It is the real treat how Waters’ makes these connections, even though it was hard for me to follow the storyline that is based in classical archetypes. Still, I cannot say I didn’t enjoy this book most of the time. And if you like old English fair such as this, you won’t be able to stop reading this one.

Rating: 4/5