Glad I listened to it

The stories chug along eventually gaining momentum. At times rather too wordy and I would have liked rather less of Viv’s brother and his friend - the factory and the prison scenes were a tad tedious.

This was the first book where I can recall women’s periods being dealt with and in simple plain terms - hardly a major factor in the book but important for most women and deserving of being featured.

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Pretty average

I didn't know what to expect with this book but it turned out to be pretty average. More the story line than the voices / acting. I have since seen a tv version and felt the same - it just didn't really grab me.

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Excellent

I very much enjoyed this book. It's definitely better than some of her other books, and I thought was very well written. The narration is also very good. Set during the London blitz, it follows the lives of several females through this period, whose lives are separate, and yet intertwined. I'd highly recommend it.

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Excellently narrated

I managed to get through purely because it was so well narrated. I was constantly waiting for the storey to get going or for something exciting to happen and it never did. However, I still enjoyed listening and particularly enjoyed the parts set in London during the blitz.

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Very unusual and thoroughly enjoyable

If you have not read anything by SW before, I can recommend this as a starting point. She really is a first class storyteller. The novel is inhabited by fully rounded characters and is wonderfully atmospheric.

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Beautifully read

This book wouldn't have been half such a good listen if it hadn't been for the excellent reader Juanita McMahon. She brings all the characters alive. And has a different voice for them all.
The story line is interesting from the point of view of life in London during WWII and especially the ambulance service. Also the difficulties of being gay in that era. It was just not acceptable.

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A wonderful listen

A wonderful listen: The Night Watch

This is a wonderful listen - atmospheric and beautifully read. The most remarkable aspect of the book is the incredibly detailed description Sarah Walters gives of London during the bombing, and how sympathetically she describes the suffering and anguish of the characters. Throughout, I kept wondering whom she had talked to and how she had found out so much about what it felt like to live through that time. Most interesting of all is the way in which she subtly makes the reader reflect on how important the 1940s were for the way that people's lives changed because of the war. Although she never makes any overt statement, you feel that the characters, many of whom do not conform to social norms, were able to live freer lives than before the war and that attitudes towards them, after the war, would gradually change. Waters is excellent on people's little embarrassments. She describes how women did not like being seen going to the lavatory and how, when at work, they were not allowed to go to the lavatory except at specified times. These details, and the details about makeup and the petty tyrannies of the typing pool are what make one feel she must have talked to people and not just read about what it was like to live at that time. There are so many questions one would like to ask the author, that the interview with her at the end is a real disappointment, focusing on her schooling and sexuality rather than immense learning and her wonderful evocation of people and a period of which she can have had absolutely no personal experience.

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51 people found this helpful

Weird and compelling

I'm really glad I heard this as an audio book rather than reading it, otherwise I might have been tempted to skip back and forwards to try to work out what the heck was going on. The reverse timeline was possibly a bit too clever, but dealing with effects before causes did give the story an unusual kind of depth.
Particularly compelling was the author's depiction of a relationship that is falling apart, and the weird little things people do when the worst happens.

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6 people found this helpful

loved it all !

very unusual type of book for me but I'll be searching for more from sarah.

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The Night Watch

This is a dauntingly long recording, and at first I wondered whether I would last the course, but I persevered and was ultimately rewarded. The cast of characters covers a range of social class and gender types, and, although the war is the background, it is also a major influence on all of them. The novel begins in the early post war, and much of the novel is a linked series of episodes taking place during the war, which puts into place the behaviours, concerns, quirks and relationships of the characters in their post war guise. The ordinariness of most of the characters set against a background of extraordinary events is an effective way of situating daily life in London during the air raids, and it effectively conveyed the way in which life and relationships had to be carried on in the face of disruption and danger. It also shows how conventions were challenged and social divisions were being undermined. This is not a book, however, for the reader wanting quick gratification, as it requires some commitment from the reader/listener. Juanita McMahon's reading is outstanding.

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1 person found this helpful