The Night Watch

Title: The Night Watch
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 2006 by Virago
Genre: Historical drama
Pages: 503


Agh! This took me so long! Work has been very hectic for... at least all of this month, and the few times I've had time/chance/concentration enough to read during lunch have been few and far between. But anyway, The Night Watch is now properly re-read!

Actual conversation, though translated to English:

Co-worker: So Kati, what are you reading this time?
Me: Oh? This is, uh, about a few Londoners. In London, during the second World War. Except that the book starts at the end, like, 1947, and tells how the story ends, and then goes back a few times, a few years at a time, to show how the people ended up in the situations they were when the book started. Or ended. It's a cool book!
Co-worker: ...why can't you read a joke-book for a change?
Me: ...

So, in bit more detail, the book indeed follows a few people: Kay, a seemingly lost soul dressed in manly clothes; Helen, a woman jealous over her famous, beautiful lover; Viv, a glamour girl with her married lover; and Duncan, a young man imprisoned over the opinions of others. That's where we set out, and in the end, we do find out what exactly happened to them. And whether they had a happy ending/beginning.

I first read The Night Watch back when I was living in the UK, in 2008, and I liked it very much! I still do, mind, but I guess work and knowing what's going to happen, although I'd forgotten most details, made for slower reading. But like Waters' other books, it's such a thrilling ride. Damn, she's good.

I know it says I'm reading Laughter of Carthage up there, but honestly, I barely got through the intro before work hit. Now, with a nasty flu bugging me as well, I'm lucky if my brain can handle Baby's First Book.


Viv kept her head down; but looked back once. Kay had joined the line of people outside the cinema: she was holding a lighter to her cigarette, and the flame of it, springing up, through the twilight, lit her fingers and face. Hush, Vivien, Viv remembered her saying. The memory was stark, after all this time -stark and terrible- the grip of her hand, the closeness of her mouth. Vivien, hush.