The Night Watchman

 

In my role as a TV news manager, I have a "soft" rule: a story can be as long as it needs to be, as long as it holds attention. A long story - a long book - doesn't scare me. But, it has to hold up. This well-told book nearly did. Nearly. 

But not quite.

The plot is worthy, as are the characters. It's based on a 1950's attempt by the government to eliminate a reservation. Didn't learn about that in your American history classes? Yeah, me neither. (My high school history classes consisted of the school's basketball coaches showing us the entire mini-series of Roots and Lonesome Dove so he could work on plays during that time, but that's a story for another day.)

I digress.

The Night Watchman tells this story through the characters who tried to stop it and others on the reservation forced to give up - and, give in - to the whims of society around them. 

It's an important read. A spiritual one, in fact. And rich with characters who tell the story not through stereotypes, but through honest narrative.

It just took too long to get there.

It sounds so lazy now that I write it down. But, there were times at nearly every phase of this book that I nearly gave up. Then, something would drag me back in. The reward was nearly there, the characters nearly complete. I can imagine, though, giving this a 4 our 5-star review had it only been more carefully crafted to 250 or 300 pages instead of 464.