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The Night Watch by David McNeily Sarah Waters’ fourth novel The Night Watch was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006. David McNeilly takes a closer look at her controversial new novel The Night Watch…
Sarah Waters’ latest novel, The Night Watch brings lesbianism into the early twentieth century. Set just after and during the Second World War the novel is an account of the lives of three women and a young man presented to the reader in three different time periods, starting with the most recent. Helen and Vivian are co-workers by the end of the war, although both have been deeply affected by personal experiences, which the reader discovers later in the novel. As their account begins Vivian’s brother, Duncan is living with an elder man, a relationship which is never completely explained. And Kay, the ambulance driving lady who is perhaps more masculine than Vivian’s unfortunate brother, completes the quartet. The story moves at an incredibly slow pace, laboriously creating an environment through excessive use of insignificant details and dialogue which neither furthers the story nor amuses. We follow these four protagonists through London having ordinary - though seldom thrilling - exchanges and experiences. The fact that there is a war on should ease the tedium somewhat, although unfortunately it only ever looms in the background. Kay’s nightly heroics detail the more humdrum side of military conflict, yet they are horrendous and explicit in their own right. 1 of 2 |
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