Night Watch: A Novel

Marvelous historical fiction, with a large dose of reality. The characters are very well drawn. I felt drawn into their stories. There sadness made me sad.

Night Watch, a novel by Jayne Anne Phillips, this month won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It tells the story of women and anguish during the American Civil War and its aftermath, of mothers and surrogate mothers and widows caught in the killing of their husbands and children in battle. It is finally a story about a driven will to survive, to the breaking point, horrors that visit their lives. Men are not portrayed propitiously in this narrative.Phillips creates a specific reality for each of her characters and mixes their historical situations effectively. Husbands conscripted for war are lost to fighting. Families are sundered, in spirit or in fact. Without a male protector in isolated precincts, rape is a real fear, and vulnerability to theft a fact of life. Children are exploited and abused or rejected by mothers as spoiled by forceful parentage. Night Watch uncovers a world where women, codified by law as second-class citizens, must depend on men who shirk their duties and responsibilities. Laws promulgated to address injustice toward women and to protect their rights as citizens would come later. In 1874, the year of post-Civil War reconstruction used by Phillips, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded, and the political drive to outlaw alcohol commenced. In 1919 prohibition was ratified as the18th constitutional amendment in response to alcohol abuse disrupting domestic culture.Night Watch has a well-researched background for a fundamentally serious story on a serious topic set in America’s most serious history, the Civil War, and its aftermath. One fault of the narrative is an almost total lack of humor. Another is that the resolution suffers slightly but manifestly from contrivance. Against other virtues, this might be quibbling. In 1874 a woman at the edge of sanity is taken to a lunatic asylum because of horrifying circumstances and abuse. This is brilliantly and believably portrayed. Daughter ConaLee accompanies her mother, in a subterfuge that allows acceptance into the asylum, Eliza, now neurotically speechless and under the name of Miss Janet, finds sanctuary and safety. And more satisfying discoveries will eventually unfold.There is a buried intensity in how Jayne Anne Phillips writes. The Pulitzer Prize is focused on talent. Her sentences are sharp, paired; her scenes are vivid. Behind an obvious effort of research and story is a determination to serve art and life. This artistic fortitude makes the foundation for her entire novel.Though Phillips’s evocation of men as cowardly and morally evasive can weary as too unidirectional, her emphasis is historically accurate. She has a point. And she is writing history, not re-writing it. Using fiction as art’s way of expanding dimension and perspective, she speaks to what has become the clichéd, ignored, or even abandoned plight of women in our society. Her representation of what happened to her fictional characters in a carefully reconstructed account of a particular time resonates truth. The frangible nature of chance and fate for women during a war that took from them their men and boys is the undergirding theme of Night Watch. Jayne Anne Phillips has written her best novel so far, and it will stand. --Tom Casey

Although many may pass this one by because its civil war setting, I say give it a chance and embrace the characters. The author cleverly switches the narration at book chapters. Maybe we have seen this before, but they also capture the characters essense in the writing style change, and that worked with me. We slowly learn more as the story progresses keeping us enthralled and engaged all the way to the end. I couldn't put it down! I could see this book as a movie too!

My take on the book is that the plot seemed artificial and improbable. For one, the way that the "Eliza" character gets to the Asylum in the first place. I had a hard time believing that a lazy opportunistic character would go to such lengths when he could have just left. Another plotline, with "Night Watch" and Eliza, has me wondering if these characters were Uncle and Niece. (I feel like would be difficult to go back and do a closer reading).Also the book should come with a trigger warning for very graphic sexual abuse content.The writing is good, but also seems artificially hard to follow. I was reminded of Faulkner, maybe the author is trying to go in that direction but with no good basis.

It’s very different from what I usually read. I did find self skimming pages but overall a fine book to read.

I have very mixed feelings about Night Watch. I think I was focused more on "Why did this win the 2024 Pulitzer Prize?" than the actual story, which was disturbing yet contrived. The storyline takes place in 1874 and 1864 and is not chronological. So, it is sometimes confusing to understand the order of the various plot elements. The story opens in 1874 with "Papa" dropping off ConaLee, a thirteen-year-old girl, and her mother, Eliza, at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. All three go by different names, and some of their connectedness remains unknown until the story unravels. Their confusing identity sets the stage for many characters with multiple names. It is Reconstruction in the Appalachians of West Virginia, and folks haven't recovered from the Civil War. Each character and erasable personhood mimics the undefined characteristics of states like West Virginia and Americans in the backdrop of the war.As the story progresses and shifts between 1864 and 1874, we learn the backstories of ConaLee, the only first-person voice in the novel, and Eliza. We meet other characters who have experienced war and other traumas. Sometimes, the personal traumas are related to the war and sometimes to social class, gender, or mental health status. The insane asylum's philosophy is one of "moral treatment," which is revolutionary. The asylum was real, and Quaker physician Thomas Story Kirkbride, quoted in the book, was also a real person. Dr. Story, kin of Kirkbride, is fictional yet based on historical information about how to treat the mentally ill if they could seek refuge in such a place.The Night Watch, who is on duty at the asylum when ConaLee and Elize arrive, has severe war injuries and multiple identities throughout the story. His backstory before, during, and after the war provides significant plot developments. Another character, Dearbhla, depicted as an Irish witch and sometimes mistaken for a man, has a history with the Night Watch, Eliza, and ConaLee. Dearbhla, although lower class and probably on par with those enslaved in the social order, takes good care of the main characters and seems to have ESP in protecting them. The only other child in the book is Weed, an orphan treated as a pet at the asylum. Weed, like Dearbhla, has a seemingly magical ability to be aware of more than what the senses can perceive.There are graphic descriptions of sexual and physical abuse in this book, as well as war violence and other human interactions that are in contrast to the "moral treatment" "professed at the asylum. The story illustrates the effects of war and enslavement in myriad ways. To appreciate the messages of this book, one must consider not only the actual fighting and official slavery but also the virtual enslavements between characters. Also essential in the convoluted human relationships included in the novel is the absence and importance of family figures and the continual search for familial nurturing. I have concluded that this book won the Pulitzer because the United States' current divisive issues resonate today with those around the Civil War. As in those days, we must figure out how to adapt to new and changed conditions.

I’m a Canadian in her 60s who studied what Americans would call AP History when I was 18. I have always been interested, saddened and fascinated with the psychosocial antecedents and impacts of your Civil War. My initial college education was English literature and journalism. I then retrained in late middle age as a nurse. For the past 12 years I have worked as a psychiatric nurse at a rural Canadian psychiatric hospital that is very old and quite similar to the Trans Allegheny. So this book obviously resonates personally. Even if it hadn’t, I am so moved by the beautiful evocative descriptions of country, landscape and place, and of the depth of the characters. I periodically make the drive from Canada to Florida and typically pass through W. Virginia. Next time I shall stop in Weston. Thank you JAP

This is a marvellous novel. Set in the chaotic, almost apocalyptic, aftermath of the American Civil War.A traumatised mother and her loving daughter seek refuge in a lunatic asylum in West Virginia.As one of the characters says: 'When the killing ends the grief goes on.'Fascinating characters and a powerful plot.Highly recommended.

A somewhat disturbing read. Especially for someone not familiar with the after effects of the civil war in the Unites States. The lawlessness, the animosity and the cruelty on full display.A difficult but eye-opening read.

This beautiful novel touches me greatly, especially since I have a family touched by the War. The characters are real and deep. Recommended!

The Pulitzer judges were given this book to judge with money inserted in the pages. Can't think of any other explanation