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A review by prodilosso
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
3.0
Ok, 3.5, but does not feel like a Pulitzer.
There are predictable plot coincidences.
Characters are sketchy. Why didn't the strong woman, Dearbhla, do anything to stop Papa's abuse? How can Eliza deny her daughter and get cured BY ROMANCE (gag me). Why is Weed here?
A completely bizarre epilogue featuring a brand new character.
Non linear time lines for what reason? Why are we going back to dinner with Doc O'Shea?
Redeeming quality 1: the depiction of societal PTSD. Hordes of displaced, traumatized, craven, psyscho war casualties, both the soldiers and the abandoned women and children.
Redeeming quality 2: vivid writing in a rural West Virginian tempo. There are gratuitously graphic war hospital and rape scenes that are realistic and sickening.
There are predictable plot coincidences.
Characters are sketchy. Why didn't the strong woman, Dearbhla, do anything to stop Papa's abuse? How can Eliza deny her daughter and get cured BY ROMANCE (gag me). Why is Weed here?
A completely bizarre epilogue featuring a brand new character.
Non linear time lines for what reason? Why are we going back to dinner with Doc O'Shea?
Redeeming quality 1: the depiction of societal PTSD. Hordes of displaced, traumatized, craven, psyscho war casualties, both the soldiers and the abandoned women and children.
Redeeming quality 2: vivid writing in a rural West Virginian tempo. There are gratuitously graphic war hospital and rape scenes that are realistic and sickening.