Book: The Night Watch

 Book: Night Watch

Author: Jayne Anne Phillips

Pages: 304

This is my 48th book for the year

What Amazon says:

In 1874, in the wake of the War,erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways.  Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn't spoken in more than a year.  They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital's entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world.  There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.  The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their story: their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee's father, who left for the War and never returned.  Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path.  ConaLee pretends to be her mother's maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment.  They get swept up in the life of the facility - the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.  

This was an okay book.  I had picked it up after I saw it in A West Virginia University bookstore while visting family.  I was intrigued by this Pulitzer Prize winner, but was disappointed with the story in the end.  The writing is good - but the story didn't pull me in.  It was almost too unbelievable.  A lot of questions remain unanswered.  The ending was satisfactory, but in this type of story, a "happily ever after" didn't seem to fit. The story of Papa is deeply disturbing and if I had know it ahead of time, I would not have picked this book up.

Stars: 3