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A review by jamestomasino
The Night Watch by Patrick Modiano
4.0
I liked this more than I expected to. The writing really does give the sense of the occupation as something of a fever dream. I'm reminded of early cartoons where the figures are distorted and grossly proportioned, and never cease their movement. The Gestapo parties felt like that and it gave the casual cruelty an unnatural sense of reality. The characterization is likewise a strange success. A character we clearly shouldn't sympathize with grows with the struggle to find an identity. Traitor or more? This feels very personal on some levels and the feeling it captures of this time and life is also so unique for works about the time period. Worth a read, even if I had difficulty following references and language changes