What do readers think of Night Watch?

Unique telling of the civil war

What a unique way to tell a story about the civil war. It is during the time of the civil war but more about the women who were left behind and their hardships. Men who could not deal with their women or wanted to get rid of them would take them to the Insane Asylum. This is the story of Eliza who was abused by a man who was not her husband. Her husband never came back from the war and her daughter, ConaLee. Dearbhla, the lady who lived in the hills near them and a sort of witch doctor.
Dr. Story, the doctor at the asylum and Mrs. Bowman. Their lives are so intertwined. It is such a touching story and great well developed characters. It will stay with me for a long time.

Barbara Bilhorn

The new Faulkner

This book is a slow dance of imagery (imagined and real) of the worst in humankind. It does show the best as well and balances out. Think Faulkner ‘s writing style with Frazier’s Cold Mountain. There are parallels between War and Survival in both the West Virginia Mountains and the Insane Asylum.

Read it slowly.

Anthony Conty

A Roller Coaster

“Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips, with its unique stream-of-consciousness writing and a multitude of characters, is a novel that may not resonate with everyone. It transports you to the post-Civil War era, where 12-year-old ConaLee is thrust into adulthood with her mute mother. Their journey unfolds in an asylum, forcing them to assume new identities and blend in. The novel’s depth is shaped by its diverse cast of characters and multiple points of view, which may be a lot to take in for some.

The quick change to other topics will annoy some. When we go back to Eliza, the mother, to find out why she doesn’t speak, we read about a sexual assault that is even worse than usual. Dearbhla, the neighbor and surrogate to ConaLee, fancies herself as spiritual and senses conflict from afar. Her use of tinctures will remind you of “The Lost Apothecary.” Switching between stories makes you yearn to know what is happening in another.

On another note, we meet a man known as “The Sharpshooter,” who is recovering from war-related injuries and cannot remember his name. His process grounds the novel with the realities of combat. It will remind you of your first “Pulp Fiction” viewing as you try to connect all the dots. For once, reading reviews helped me as it enabled me to think about what the book had to say about women’s health, specifically, and mental health in general.

Phillips is a skilled writer because this is too much for the average author to balance in a 275-page novel. If you enjoy non-linear, unconventional books, this is for you, but exercise some patience. The ending is rewarding, sad, and wonderful all at the same time. Even the characters who seemed minor will come out as significant and worth the wait.

Cathryn Conroy

This Is Literary Fiction at Its Finest: A Mesmerizing Storyline

The writing. Oh, the writing. This is one of those books that demands to be reread—even if it’s just a paragraph here and a page there. The writing is masterful, lyrical, and nearly poetic. And this is only one of the reasons this profound, haunting novel by Jayne Anne Phillips won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The book opens in 1874 when Eliza and her 12-year-old daughter are being driven in a wagon to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. It is not only the men who fought in the Civil War who are suffering psychologically from the trauma it wreaked. How and why they are here is the heart and soul of this heartbreaking plot that jumps back and forth in time from 1864 to 1874 in a way that is seamless and brilliant—as in, this is the best possible way to tell the story. The plot is convoluted and to reveal anything else here would be revealing spoilers. Suffice it to say that there are several gut-punch plot twists/revelations that left me almost breathless they were so stunning.

In addition to the ingenious, multilayered plot and good old-fashioned storytelling, the characters, who are doing what it takes to survive in unimaginably difficult circumstances, make this emotionally searing novel special. They feel like real people—from their actions and dialogue to the descriptions of their clothing.

While it took a few chapters to get fully immersed in the story, once I did, I was captivated…totally mesmerized. Sometimes I would look up from the page and wonder where I was. This is literary fiction at its finest.

Jill

Post Civil War

Narration by, Karissa Vacker, Theo Stockman, and Maggi-Megan Reed, was very well done and enjoyed listening to all of them.

A PULITZER PRIZE WINNER 2024 — Night Watch is a historical fiction novel that follows ConaLee, a young girl in post-Civil War West Virginia, as she and her mother, Eliza, struggle to survive in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. ConaLee struggles to raise her mother’s children, protect herself and her mother, and find her father in the decade after the Civil War.

A war veteran has forced himself into ConaLee’s and her mother’s world. The novel is split into parts that take place in 1864, 1874, and 1883, following Eliza and ConaLee’s life in the Appalachian Mountains and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. They become swept up in the life of the facility — the man called the Night Watch; the orphan child, called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the doctor who runs the facility. This explores themes of, trauma with its long term effects, the importance of family, and the impacts of war.

I enjoyed her writing and the entire story of ConaLee and her mother, Eliza. This is my first read by, Jayne Anne Phillips and look forward to reading more by her.

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