Book Review: The Night Watch

I'm almost at the point where I don't want to open a book that has been shortlisted for the Man Booker.... its not that I only want to read light-hearted stories, or that I dont want to be challenged, or have my comfort zone upended, its just that lately I've been reading to fill spaces in my life and short-listed books take up brain power I just dont have to spare.  I should start another stack and put them all there.....for later.

Having got that off my chest.....The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (Virago 2006) took me on a journey backwards in London from 1947 to 1941.  Starting at the end of the story and going back to fill in the blanks provided some unexpected twists.  This is a story of lives unravelled by the war, the strands knotted together in sad loops where no-one has a happy ending.  Four women are linked together - Kay, Helen and Julia in a series of shortlived and ultimately unsatisfactory relationships with eachother, and Viv whose life is lived in the shadow of someone else's marriage. I found the women easy to picture because they have been seen in the background of so many wartime movies: working the jobs that men will return to reclaim, wearing clothes salvaged and darned to make them last. The backdrop of London bombings is told so well that I expected plaster dust to rise from the pages as I turned them.

Sexuality runs through the book as a longing never allowed to be satisfied for too long.  I found myself waiting for the next disaster, the next leave-taking, the next mis-interpreted glance.  Uncovering the secret of the ring came too late in the story to make me care.  Its not a book I enjoyed, but I did read it until the end.

Friday Fill-ins #180

1. I'm home in a warm room with a cat on my feet and a hot chocolate beside the keyboard, and it feels great.
2. The solution is sometimes not what you really want to be told.
3.Tonight I cant wait to fall asleep.
4. How about I make a big pot of pumpkin risotto and throw in a handful of spinach and some pine nuts at the end, and then you come over for tea?
5. Laughter is something I highly recommend!
6. Imagine being that slender again.....
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing what I started, tomorrow my plans include putting a new blanket on my sons bed and Sunday, I want to catch up with friends for lunch!

Friday Fill-ins #179

1. Tasmania is my favorite place to travel to.

2. When I think about my childhood, I often remember things related to the gardens of my grandparents: peeling back the hairy buds of poppies, sitting under a spreading tree on the grass and trying to stay hidden for hours, being allowed to have a garden bed all my very own, climbing the oak tree, pulling up onion grass and getting smelly hands.

3. A scrumptious hot chocolate is what one makes for a good friend.

4. The wind in the trees, the rain on my skin, a wide rainbow across the sky.

5. Finding the next book in a favourite series is so exciting!

6. My best friend knows far too much.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting home, tomorrow my plans include keeping out of the rain and Sunday, I want to buy myself a birthday present.

About Book Club

I had no idea belonging to a book club was going to be so tricky.  When we started, nearly 2 years ago, it was a group made up of neighbours and the friends (and friends of friends) of one of them.  That's me, I'm a friend, and we've known eachother since starting school 50 years ago.  One of the other members started school with us too.

Anyway the routine of this book group is that we meet mostly in the same home, and that person keeps a record of what we've read and who suggested the book.  We take it in turns to suggest a book to read, and mostly we are a couple of months ahead so people can read on if they feel that way inclined, or maybe reserve the book at their library.  I generally buy a copy.

I wonder why other people joined the group?  Did they want to read new books?  Did they want to be challenged by questioning their reading, their understandings?  Did they want to read books they would never have picked up without the prompting of someone else?  Did they want to share their sort of books with like-minded readers?  Did they want the discipline of reading a book each month to give them permission to take time for themselves?

Why did I join?  First I think because I like the people, and also because I'm confident to comment on books I've read.  I also wanted to be pushed to read genres I dont usually choose.  I think I'm just a bit disgruntled because some nights the best conversation is not about the book, but around the supper table afterwards.  Perhaps I expected too much.

Friday Fill-ins #178

1. Chocolate mud-cake cupcakes -- the best food to take on a picnic.

2. Summer seems like a long way off now.

3. Somebody took my socks and boots and left me with nothing to wear but my flip flops.

4. To love someone is a good way to pass the time (for years...).

5. Why on earth would anyone want to go on a long hike?

6. When I crave food, it's usually because I forgot to eat sometime a l-o-n-g time ago.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed (yawn), tomorrow my plans include buying some thermal underwear and Sunday, I want to stay dry while I'm paddling the boat!

Friday Fill-ins #171

1. In 1992, I was lots younger and sillier.
2. All I want as a present for any occasion for the rest of my life is laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you will have the most impact.
4. At the beginning of my holidays instead of at the end is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me things I cant quite believe, and why am I listening???
6. I want the next book I open to be one that just keeps going on (provided its a good one).
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to staying home on a very rare Friday, tomorrow my plans include finding the things I should have spent the holidays doing, and doing them! and Sunday, I want to find a way of keeping the rain off while I'm on the river.

Cats on the shelves #1

I can't resist a book about cats, so long as it resists the temptation to be too cute, and has something interesting to say as well.  After a trip to visit friends lucky enough to spend part of every year on the beautiful island of Naxos, and after finding cats here and there on the island......... this book was hard to pass.  So many of the photographs included slender black cats, just like one of mine, so I chose one of my favourites to share.

"The Mediterranean Cat" by Hans Silvester, translated in 1996 and published that year by Chronicle Books.

One day I went shopping on Naxos to buy the cotton blanket.  The shop was narrow and filled with linen for every occasion.  The owner spoke very little English so my friend translated for me and we went upstairs to look on the many shelves.  Success!  Its light, cool, soft to touch, and reminds me of my holiday with some of my dearest friends.

....off to hunt for the photographs of Naxos felines...