Night Watch

by Kevin Armstrong

Shimmering with ferocious tension, Night Watch explores the nature of identity and the meaning of home, through a thematically linked collection of stories that take place in the Pacific - on its scattered islands and the swathes of sea that separate them. Kevin Armstrong's perspective is fluid, alternating from that of the islands' indigenous peoples, to travellers passing through, to the sailor who is at home neither at sea nor on land. Driving every story is the twinned search for one home and escape from another. The characters of Night Watch skirt the uneasy, even treacherous boundaries between what is known and what is longed for, and what is and what might be. In "The Hunga Pass we learn about a Tongan fakaleiti, a boy raised as a girl and then transplanted for a time to the American Midwest. In "The Cane Field we encounter the myriad ways a mother's love for her daughter can be shredded by cultural and political forces in Fiji. And, in "Inside Passage we learn about a seafaring culture, which is as foreign, and more treacherous, than anything encountered on land. These are haunting tales that dislocate and unsettle, even (and perhaps especially) in their moments of revelation. They are the work of a prodigiously talented young writer.

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Phil Della · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been out for 18 years so far and I had never heard of the author, but the fact that he won the Journey prize was all I needed to know before I bought it. A book of short stories primarily focused on working on boats in the south Pacific, these tales repeatedly surprised and impressed me with their exotic locales, psychological intensity and skillful language. I have to say, the book took some time to win me over as the earlier stories had a style that struck me as almost ungrammatical in parts. I will have to reread them to figure out what was going on there, but it threw me. The telling shifted to a more conventional prose and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief. There is lots of nautical lingo which provides authenticity, but the stories aren't just lessons in seafaring. The stories simply happen in that setting. After reading about one exotic local after another (we are informed by the cover that the author worked as a first mate in far-flung places) the final story is set in Vancouver, BC, which is home to me. This last story reminded me of another Journey prize winning tale called 'Sealskin' by Tyler Keevil. I felt as if these two authors had performed a tag-team match with dueling tales set in the same setting. Discovering this collection in a thrift store is a highlight and it just goes to show you why second hand book shops are so satisfying to shop in.

[Jose Bakker]

I couldn't finish, it didn't hold my attention and I didn't like the writing.