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by: Sarah Waters
Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9781844082469
Format: Import
ISBN: 1844082466
Label: Riverhead Books
Manufacturer: Riverhead Books
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2006
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Sales Rank: 1340296
Studio: Riverhead Books
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - dull, dull, duller
I try to finish all my books to the bitter end, but I had an especially hard time with this one. Waters departs from her Victorian underworld lesbian heroines to explore well, I don't really know, but I'm sure the War has something to do with it. The intertwining stories of Helen, Viv, and Duncan are told backwards (a lot less interesting than one would think) which allows you to get just invested enough in the present day characters that you start to care about where they're going rather ... Read More
Rating:  - Intense and captivating
This is the first Sarah Waters novel I have picked up and, I have to say, I have no doubt about her qualifications for being a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. "The Night Watch" was masterfully written and each of her characters came across as being distinct and separate individuals. Although the story is told backwards, from 1947 to 1941, the reader is not left feeling as though something gravely important is being withheld. Each timeframe operates on its own as story and, even though the rest ... Read More
Rating: - 4.5 out of 5: Tender and extraordinarily intimate
Moving backwards in time, the story covers the lives of four Londoners during WWII (2 women and 1 man, all gay except for one straight woman). The lives connect and intersect in surprising and revealing ways. Tender and extraordinarily intimate with the backdrop of brutal war.
Rating: - Lesbians in Wartime London
To start with, before people start throwing things at me, let me say that I realize that the set of main characters here includes some males and a heterosexual woman. However the stories of these characters are, at least for me, quite banal, and the book would have been better off without them. The main story here, for me at least, concerns the three lesbians Helen, Julia, and Kay.
I have not read any of Sarah Waters other books, but I get the feeling that this was her first book, and ... Read More
Rating:  - Good but not Great
This novel is interesting in concept -- going backwards through time to delve into how a set of characters ended up where they are at. And the backdrop of war time Britain is marvelously dark and wrought with peril. At the same time, I was disappointed by the lack of true depth to the characters. Unlike other novels by this author, it is more difficult in this novel to dive into the characters' heads. Perhaps Viv is the most fleshed out of the lot, and even then, it takes a bit of work. Duncan, Helen, ... Read More
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