Night Watch

by Kevin Armstrong

A debut collection of tales set in the South Pacific follows the experiences of a Tongan boy who is raised as a girl and then transplanted to the American Midwest, a desperate widow who unknowingly delivers the daughter she wants to protect into a molester's hands, and a sailor who feels at home neither on land nor at sea. Original. 20,000 first printing.

224 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.