[Book Review] Sarah Waters' "The Night Watch"
Miss Lai Xiaochan, a book-crossing member, has just finished reading Sarah Waters' "The Night Watch". The following is her reflection on the book.
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Sarah Waters' novel "The Night Watch", a historical fiction and romance set in the 1940s. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize. The ficion, backward through third person narrative, takes place in 1940s London during and after World War II. The storyline follows three lesbian women, one straight woman and one gay man, their secrets, shames and scandals that connect them despite their different experiences.
The novel begins in 1947, we see Kay Langrish, a woman in her mid-thirties who spends her days locked in her room in London, watching her landlord's patients arrive and leave at precisely the same hours every day. During a visit with one of her war-time friends, Mickey, it is revealed that Kay is wealthy and her residence is both a surprise and a disappointment. They vaguely refer to what happened in the war and how difficult it was for Kay to overcome a potential challenge. Then we see Helen, who, with her assistant Viv, runs a match-making agency. The work itself is not very fulfilling, but their friendship keeps them entertained. But Helen does not tell Viv about Julia, a published author, the woman with whom she is romantically involved. Viv has an affair with Reggie, a married man. They have a picnic where they can’t be seen. After work, Viv sets off to meet her brother Duncan, who lives with a much older gentleman named Mr Mundy. The three of them meet on a weekly basis for dinner at Mr Mundy's, and Viv always brings a tin of meat for them to share. Viv spots Kay waiting in the cinema queue and panics. But she has been coming back to the cinema for a whole week, hoping to see Kay again and finally she run to Kay and hand Kay a gold band.
Then backward to 1944.Duncan has been in prison for three years now, and Viv and her father visit him once a month. Towards the end of the chapter, there are indications that Duncan was imprisoned following an attempted suicide. Viv is working as a typist, and she meets Reggie at anonymous hotels once every five weeks, whenever Reggie is permitted leave from Wales. One day she finds herself pregnant with Reggie's baby. After she telephones him, she has to wait two weeks for him to take off leave, and has abortions, but she suffers a massive hemorrhage and Reggie calls the ambulance and steals away. Kay arrives with Mickey. On the way to the hospital, Viv explains to the women her situation and begs them to remain silent. Upon arrival, Viv becomes afraid that the doctors will learn about the abortion and scorn her for being an unmarried woman. Kay slips herring, which she never took off, on to Viv's finger and leaves. Kay works as an emergency response ambulance worker along with Mickey. She spends long nights cleaning up after air raids, sometimes collecting corpses, at other times rushing victims to the nearest hospital. She lives with Helen, who she sees she must protect and shelter from the horrors of war. For Helen's birthday, she spends a fortune buying her silk pajamas, coffee and an orange. One night a call comes in to an air raid that has occurred on her street. She assumes Helen's been asleep throughout the entire raid and panics. But Helen is with Julia that night: their affair has been for some weeks, thanks to Kay's late hours. They are in Julia's flat, and it is then that Helen decides she must tell Kay and break things off with her. She finds she is entirely in love with Julia, and while she cares for Kay, she doesn't love her in the same manner she once used to. It is also then that Julia straightens out her past for Helen: it was Julia, not Kay, who was in love with the other, while the latter didn't feel the same. Julia attributed Helen's misconception to Kay's gallantry, and Helen suddenly feels used, but still finds she can't help her love for Julia.
Finally we see how things begin in 1941, when Viv is on a crowded train and there meets a soldier named Reggie. In her earnestness and honesty she falls in love with him. Alec decides to slash his throat and easily convinces Duncan to do the same, since Duncan can't imagine a life without him. Alec bids farewell and cuts himself. It is implied that Duncan follows suit, but his father interrupts before much damage is done. Kay is responding to an emergency call along with Mickey. They arrive at the scene and find one woman dead, another young woman caught underneath rubble, and two others trapped behind more debris. Kay helps the young woman, and after a brief exchange, she soon finds herself displaying much care towards her victim. They share a cigarette and Kay finds she's smitten with her. She asks for her name and she tells her it's Helen.
"We might all be dead tomorrow," remarks Viv, and of course the heightened atmosphere of wartime licenses the expression of desire. "So many impossible things were becoming ordinary, just then," as Helen remarks of her first relationship with a woman; class and wealth divisions are also corroded, now that "we all dress like scarecrows, and talk like Americans". It is a bit like 张爱玲's 倾城之恋, in which people love when a city falls. The city also becomes a dramatic backdrop to emotional upheavals, as two women begin their affair with an eerie midnight walk during an air raid through deserted, bombed-out streets by the river and St Paul's, the sense of "exposed ground, unnatural space" pressing in on them with mounting tension until they come together in the flash of explosions. They don't know how much time they can have, so they seize the day and love as much as they can.
Waters has deftly made her entire novel into a series of slowly uncovered secrets, and we leave her characters as we meet them; and it is we, not they, who feel older, wiser and sadder at the novel's end.
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Sarah Waters' novel "The Night Watch", a historical fiction and romance set in the 1940s. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize. The ficion, backward through third person narrative, takes place in 1940s London during and after World War II. The storyline follows three lesbian women, one straight woman and one gay man, their secrets, shames and scandals that connect them despite their different experiences.
The novel begins in 1947, we see Kay Langrish, a woman in her mid-thirties who spends her days locked in her room in London, watching her landlord's patients arrive and leave at precisely the same hours every day. During a visit with one of her war-time friends, Mickey, it is revealed that Kay is wealthy and her residence is both a surprise and a disappointment. They vaguely refer to what happened in the war and how difficult it was for Kay to overcome a potential challenge. Then we see Helen, who, with her assistant Viv, runs a match-making agency. The work itself is not very fulfilling, but their friendship keeps them entertained. But Helen does not tell Viv about Julia, a published author, the woman with whom she is romantically involved. Viv has an affair with Reggie, a married man. They have a picnic where they can’t be seen. After work, Viv sets off to meet her brother Duncan, who lives with a much older gentleman named Mr Mundy. The three of them meet on a weekly basis for dinner at Mr Mundy's, and Viv always brings a tin of meat for them to share. Viv spots Kay waiting in the cinema queue and panics. But she has been coming back to the cinema for a whole week, hoping to see Kay again and finally she run to Kay and hand Kay a gold band.
Then backward to 1944.Duncan has been in prison for three years now, and Viv and her father visit him once a month. Towards the end of the chapter, there are indications that Duncan was imprisoned following an attempted suicide. Viv is working as a typist, and she meets Reggie at anonymous hotels once every five weeks, whenever Reggie is permitted leave from Wales. One day she finds herself pregnant with Reggie's baby. After she telephones him, she has to wait two weeks for him to take off leave, and has abortions, but she suffers a massive hemorrhage and Reggie calls the ambulance and steals away. Kay arrives with Mickey. On the way to the hospital, Viv explains to the women her situation and begs them to remain silent. Upon arrival, Viv becomes afraid that the doctors will learn about the abortion and scorn her for being an unmarried woman. Kay slips herring, which she never took off, on to Viv's finger and leaves. Kay works as an emergency response ambulance worker along with Mickey. She spends long nights cleaning up after air raids, sometimes collecting corpses, at other times rushing victims to the nearest hospital. She lives with Helen, who she sees she must protect and shelter from the horrors of war. For Helen's birthday, she spends a fortune buying her silk pajamas, coffee and an orange. One night a call comes in to an air raid that has occurred on her street. She assumes Helen's been asleep throughout the entire raid and panics. But Helen is with Julia that night: their affair has been for some weeks, thanks to Kay's late hours. They are in Julia's flat, and it is then that Helen decides she must tell Kay and break things off with her. She finds she is entirely in love with Julia, and while she cares for Kay, she doesn't love her in the same manner she once used to. It is also then that Julia straightens out her past for Helen: it was Julia, not Kay, who was in love with the other, while the latter didn't feel the same. Julia attributed Helen's misconception to Kay's gallantry, and Helen suddenly feels used, but still finds she can't help her love for Julia.
Finally we see how things begin in 1941, when Viv is on a crowded train and there meets a soldier named Reggie. In her earnestness and honesty she falls in love with him. Alec decides to slash his throat and easily convinces Duncan to do the same, since Duncan can't imagine a life without him. Alec bids farewell and cuts himself. It is implied that Duncan follows suit, but his father interrupts before much damage is done. Kay is responding to an emergency call along with Mickey. They arrive at the scene and find one woman dead, another young woman caught underneath rubble, and two others trapped behind more debris. Kay helps the young woman, and after a brief exchange, she soon finds herself displaying much care towards her victim. They share a cigarette and Kay finds she's smitten with her. She asks for her name and she tells her it's Helen.
"We might all be dead tomorrow," remarks Viv, and of course the heightened atmosphere of wartime licenses the expression of desire. "So many impossible things were becoming ordinary, just then," as Helen remarks of her first relationship with a woman; class and wealth divisions are also corroded, now that "we all dress like scarecrows, and talk like Americans". It is a bit like 张爱玲's 倾城之恋, in which people love when a city falls. The city also becomes a dramatic backdrop to emotional upheavals, as two women begin their affair with an eerie midnight walk during an air raid through deserted, bombed-out streets by the river and St Paul's, the sense of "exposed ground, unnatural space" pressing in on them with mounting tension until they come together in the flash of explosions. They don't know how much time they can have, so they seize the day and love as much as they can.
Waters has deftly made her entire novel into a series of slowly uncovered secrets, and we leave her characters as we meet them; and it is we, not they, who feel older, wiser and sadder at the novel's end.
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