Sarah Waters, The Night Watch

The Night Watch

Sarah Waters

Riverhead, Mar 2006, $25.95

ISBN: 159448905X

By 1947, the war has been over for two years, but London is still reeling from the bombings and the deaths, and trying to convert to a post war economy. Everyday people struggle with finding their place in life. Kay drove an ambulance during the war and had a female lover Helen, but the men are back from the western front, and so she is expected to quietly do female work or get married. Helen cannot deal with her past female lovers as she is filled with jealousy, but like Kay the men are back, so she must return to the closet. Duncan spent the war in prison, so though freed physically, is incarcerated in his mind as he cannot let go of what happened to him during the war. Finally his sister Viv loves a married soldier, Reggie, who she feels returns her regard, but can never leave his wife.

THE NIGHT WATCH is a superb look at WWII and its aftermath through the eyes of ordinary people expected to return to normalcy now that the hostilities are over. The storyline reverses chronological order by starting in 1947 (after the war is over); going back to 1944 (the end seems in sight); and finally 1941 (the war has just begun and looks dark and foreboding). The cast is powerfully drawn so that the audience can observe how each member of the ensemble and others who touched their lives struggle with going back to who they were in the 1930's when they have seen and done so much.