NIGHT WATCH

by Jayne Anne Phillips

I’m not sure if Night Watch flew under the radar for everyone, or if it was just my 2023 baby fog, but I completely missed this Pulitzer Prize winner last year.  And I’m thrilled I managed to snag it from the library because it was a truly stunning, unique and heartbreaking novel.

Set during the last years and immediate aftermath of the Civil War, primarily in what had just been named West Virginia, Phillips expertly spins the story of ConaLee, a twelve-year-old girl tasked with caring for her toddler brother and newborn twin siblings. Her mother is incapacitated and her Papa is an alcoholic and abusive to his wife and daughter. In the first chapters, Papa drops off ConaLee and her mother at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Here wealthy women are given the chance to rest and experience nature in hopes of a cure for a variety of mental illnesses. Although ConaLee and her mother are penniless, they pretend to be a traumatized widow and her maid to gain admittance. 

The rest of Night Watch unfolds their stories both backwards and forwards, alternating between the past and present in each chapter. The scenes in the asylum are truly fascinating, and not always as bleak as I would have expected for such an institution at that time. ConaLee’s life and her mother and grandmother’s before her are full of prejudiced men abusing their power while the women scrape and struggle to survive for the sake of their children.

Phillips has created a complete and compelling world, and with every twist of the story she drew me deeper in. The Pulitzer committee knows what they’re doing, but I’ll add my two cents that Night Watch is definitely a winner. (Lily)