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Night Watch
By Kevin Armstrong
Harcourt
Though not entirely a book about sailing, Kevin Armstrong's Night Watch is clearly a book written by a sailor. I read the eight fictional stories that make up Night Watch in just over 24 hours, then wished I hadn't. Each story deserves to be mulled over; taken together they are strangely disquieting.
Armstrong, who spent 15 months working on the 80-foot Wendy Lynn in the south Pacific after a delivery from San Diego to Tahiti, is an acute observer of people. His characters are indigenous Fijans (and Venezuelans) along with Europeans and Canadians who find themselves in the South Pacific and must respond to the different cultures they find and to each other.
Cruisers, especially those in the tropics, touch worlds that are very different from the places most of us call home. Part of the joy of cruising is in meeting and getting to know the people of these places. Armstrong's stories show a deeper insight into the worlds he saw while cruising, and perhaps into human nature as well. The stories range from the legendary myth of the beginnings of an island population, to the experiences of indigenous youth who venture into western cultures, to the interactions between crewmembers on sailboats and on tugs.
Armstrong's stories leave a disquieting darkness behind, perhaps because he often leaves the ending to the reader's imagination. Nevertheless, they are clearly deeply felt and well crafted.
Gaelen Phyfe, Book Review Editor
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