The Watch That Ends the Night
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
George and Catherine Stewart share not only the burden of Catherine's heart disease, which could cause her death at any time, but the memory of Jerome Martell, her first husband and George's closest friend. Martel, a brilliant doctor passionately concerned with social justice, is presumed to have died in a Nazi prison camp. His sudden return to Montreal precipitates the central crisis of the novel. Hugh MacLennan takes the reader into the lives of his three characters and back into the world of Montreal in the thirties, when politics could send an idealist across the world to Spain, France, Auschwitz, Russia, and China before his return home.
Reviews with the most likes.
In its simplest description, The Watch That Ends the Night seems like a lighthearted romantic comedy - a man marries the widow of his best friend, and years later their relationship is thrown into chaos when the friend walks back into their life years later. It's so much more than that, though: this novel is an introspective look at the human condition, and of a society that seeks to leave behind the horrors of the Second World War and enter a newer, more modern world.
I read this (and discovered MacLennan as a writer) entirely because of Gord Downie paying homage to him in a song. I mention this not to be self-effacing, but because the material that he drew from is essential to understanding the themes of the book:
“I at least discovered this: that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and that the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.”
The Watch That Ends the Night is a breathtakingly beautiful meditation on the process of aging, the ways that our life experiences shape the person we become, and the ways that our understanding of romantic love are impacted by those things.
Featured Prompt
2,805 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...
