Teaser Tuesdays: The Night Watch

I read The Night Watch a couple of weeks back, and can’t say I loved it. It was very different from the usual Sarah Waters style – experimental in its writing and tone, and it took me some time to get into it.

The Night Watch
The Night Watch

That said, the writing is beautiful, simply sublime. In terms of writing and maturity, this book about three lesbians in World War 2 is probably the best book she’s written.

Here’s a short quote that I love and have pinned up to my wall.

Life is crap but, every day is an experience.

Here’s another one I like. Kay (the main character) utters this sentence. She spends wartime rescuing people from buildings damaged by the Blitz in London. She makes this observation during one of her rescue runs:

She supposed that houses, after all – like the lives that were lived in them – were mostly made of space. It was the spaces, in fact, which counted, rather than the bricks.

Have you read this book? What did you think about it? My review will be coming soon.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

teasertuesdays31
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

11 comments

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  1. Jenny @ Reading the End

    I read this and I love it! It’s my third favorite Sarah Waters book, but it’s a close run between this one and my second favorite, The Paying Guests. All of her books are marvelous, though! She’s one of my favorite authors.

    • Nishita

      @readingtheend:disqus I’ve yet to read The Paying Guests. I’ve only read three books of hers, but they have all been pretty unique reading experiences.

  2. sjhigbee

    No – I haven’t read this one, but I do like these quotes. I’m guessing you may well get a bit existential when you are watching the fabric of the city being blown apart around you… Thank you for sharing, Nish.

    • Nishita

      @BethFishReads:disqus I didn’t love it but I really liked the literary feel of it. It’s very well-written, and very subtle, which I appreciated. Have you read this book?

    • Nishita

      @aliceaudrey:disqus Yes, I never thought about houses in this particular way, but she’s so right!

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