Night Watch ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~  

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips is a period novel set in the state of Virginia in the period after the Civil War. A woman named Eliza Connolly lives with her daughter (whose name is also Eliza but is called ConaLee) in an isolated, rough, mountain setting, impassable in winter. Her husband has gone off to fight in the Civil War; she doesn’t know if he is still alive. An old woman named Dearbhla lives near them. She knows all the old conjuring ways, although she claims to not be a conjurer. She helps Eliza Connally and her young daughter and looks after them. Dearbhla is the mother (maybe) of Eliza’s husband.

These people living on their mountain are removed from the war, but every now and then the war intrudes on their lives. A man shows up with evil intent. He appears to be a straggler from the war, or maybe a deserter. He goes away, but then he comes back because he has taken a liking to the woman Eliza Connolly. He calls himself Papa. We never know him by any other. He finds that the remote mountain is a good place for  him to hide out, so he will stay as long as he needs to. After a while, Mrs. Connolly has a baby by Papa and then twins. (He forced himself on her.)

After a period of years, Mrs. Connoly stops talking and seems to have lost her mind, while ConaLee takes care of the babies. Papa, apparently desirous of moving on to greener pastures, takes the two of them (Mrs. Connolly and ConaLee) to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and drops them off. (The TALA is built on the grand Kirkbride model of lunatic asylums, popular at this time.)

Contrary to expectations, Mrs. Connolly is treated well in the lunatic asylum and seems to blossom. She is allowed to keep ConaLee with her as her “attendant.” (She doesn’t tell anybody that ConaLee is her daughter.) They have pleasant accommodations, and the staff are most helpful and courteous, especially the head of the institution, who develops a romantic interest in her.)

There’s one man at the asylum who will play an important part in the story. He’s the “gatekeeper” of the place, the first person there whom Mrs. Connolly and ConaLee meet. They call him “Night Watch,” which is also the title of the book. His face is disfigured, but nobody knows his story because he doesn’t remember it himself.

Soon an unexpected (and unwanted) person shows up at the asylum. Will this person bring the unpleasant past to life and jeopardize Mrs. Connolly’s progress? All will be revealed.

Night Watch won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction. If you are a thinking person with an interest in good writing, I think you will find it well worth your time and effort. It’s a story about surviving (war, hardship, life) when you think it just might be easier to stop trying and lay down and die.

Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp