Night Watch

I ended up feeling slightly disappointed with The Night Watch. It's a beautifully told story of love in the blitz and the aftermath of World War Two but it takes a slightly odd form in that the first chapters are chronologically the last, set in the years immediately after the war. Then come the chapters from 1944 and finally the chapters from 1941.

Much seemed unresolved at the end of the post-war chapters with the 'male' lesbian Kay walking the streets of London, stripped of purpose after her job of ambulance driver, braving the falling bombs and doodle bugs, was taken away.

She is the most compelling of the characters. I found Viv, stuck in a long term affair with a married man, too wet for words. Julia and Helen (both lovers of Kay at one time or another) were too pastiche lesbian and gay Duncan was just plain odd.

Maybe this is a superb commentary on the effects of war on the marginalised in society - but I think it could have been stronger and more revealing in many ways. It's very much worth the read, Sarah Waters is a brilliant writer, and the research is clearly very deep - but I was left wanting more.