The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

I finished reading The Night Watch by Sarah Waters late last night. I stopped reading a little after midnight, was tired, sleepy even, which isn't always a given lately. I've had the windows open for a few weeks now day and night, and even though the cool night air was streaming in, I could hear people outside talking. I really (really!) hate that. I mean, it was after midnight. Go inside, already! It takes everything for me not to scream out the window! So, instead I turned the light back on and finished my book.

I would give this book a B (4 stars out of 5). It was very good but a little tedious. I'm not sure what kind of book I want to read, but none of them have been hitting it out of the ballpark for me lately.

One thing I really did enjoy though was the format of this book. It started the story in 1947, after World War II in England, telling the stories of the lives of Helen, Julia, Duncan, and Viv. Then the second part was set in 1944 during the war, when there were bombings and night watches daily. The third part is set  in 1941.

It's very interesting getting the back story at the tail end of the book! Ah, so that's why she knows here. Hmmm. Another book written in this format is Charles Baxter's First Light. I loved it a bit more, I think, but I really enjoyed seeing this drifting back technique in Sarah Waters' book too.

Book Read: The Night Watch

Author:  Sarah Waters

ISBN:  1-59448-905-X

The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

I finished The Feast of Love, and yep, the book is as good as the movie, which I mentioned in the previous post that I loved. The hard part for me was that the book used a story-collector, who happened to be called Charles Baxter, JUST LIKE THE AUTHOR! Well, when I emailed him, I asked the author if this was autobiographical and he said no. But in the movie, one of the characters takes on the role of the narrator/story-collector, which for the movie just made it easier, I suppose. But otherwise, not too many variations. A few, but not too many.

The Feast of Love is a somber book for the most part, but I caught myself laughing out loud a few times while reading it. The following passage was my favorite of those. A little background:  Bradley, the human, is sitting at Jackson Cascades, a waterfall attraction in Jackson, Michigan. He is feeling forlorn after his second wife, Diana, leaves him and he drives from Ann Arbor to Jackson to sit with others and get bit by mosquitoes and watch the waterfall light show while they played Neil Diamond music:

"Down below me were some families, likewise sitting, likewise watching this spectacle but perkier than I was. One child wearing Oshkosh overalls was running in widening circles. He was yelling, 'I'm gonna explode!' I nodded at him. Okay with me, kid. You just explode right there. I'm watching, and I've got the good view."

So, if you want a real treat, read The Feast of Love then watch The Feast of Love. 

Book Read:  The Feast of Love
Author:  Charles Baxter
ISBN: 0-375-41019-8

Don't listen to me. What do I know? Unless I do know...

Well, Barbara Kingsolver won the Orange Prize for The Lacuna. You know, the book that just didn't flip my switch. But what do I know? Not much evidently!

I did start reading The Feast of Love though, which I do love! I'd read one other of Charles Baxter's books, First Light, many years ago, and it was so original in the format and well written to boot. I have had The Feast of Love sitting on my nightstand for a long time, have meant to read, have tried to read it, but I did it bassackwards:  I watched the movie first, which I totally love, instead of reading the book first.

And so, I got a wild hair the other night and looked up Mr. Baxter on the internet, which I usually do after I read a book but I felt like this was a special circumstance since I've seen the movie (many times) and know what's going to happen. So, as I was tooling around his Web site, I saw the "email the author" button and I did! And he emailed me back! And we've exchanged a couple of emails, while I'm reading his book. How cool is that? I'll tell you how cool. For a word nerd, wanna be author, it's the best.