i read nightwatch when it first came out (so my memory is a bit foggy) but i remember being very disappointed with the ending i wanted something more. i must agree that is my least favorite of her books (i haven't read affinity) but it still wasn't bad i liked the interconnectedness of the characters very much.

i would definitely recommend reading fingersmith there's  quite a bit more story in the novel than the movie which was also enjoyable. personally i think i like it more than tipping the velvet but then again i read that even further back than nightwatch so i'm not 100% on that. either way read the book and see the film if you haven't.

also if you're not already a fan Jeanette Winterson is a fabulous lesbian writer better than waters but very different since she doesn't follow a traditional narrative or plot style. Written on the Body is a personal fav as well as a short story called the Poetics of Sex (i apologize if i just told you a bunch of stuff you already knew)

"But I dream of flight, not to be as the angels are, but to rise above te smallness of it all. The smallness that I am. Against the daily death the iconography of wings."

 oranges are not the only fruit was based on a winterson book although i've never seen it. how was it? i can't find it anywhere and it takes forever to download and i end up deleting it.  I can't stress how fantastic winterson is her writing is so beautiful and intelligent if i could isteal someone's brain for a day it would be hers.

 my signature is a quote from one of her books Art & Lies.

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"But I dream of flight, not to be as the angels are, but to rise above te smallness of it all. The smallness that I am. Against the daily death the iconography of wings."

 yeah i guess you could describe her as spiritual in her own way, her writing has a very ehtereal quality. i read the book but can't remember feeling disturbed  but if the movie gives off that vibe then sadly it kinda intrigues me more. don't mind me i'm a bit odd.

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"But I dream of flight, not to be as the angels are, but to rise above te smallness of it all. The smallness that I am. Against the daily death the iconography of wings."

Winterson is amazing. She writes, differently in each novel, of course, but with a poetic quality that you don't often see in novels. That's not to say it's all airy-fairy and big, long philosophical discussions squashed into the middle. It's done in a way that's honest, and emotional.

It really is the way the written word should be. Without the grammar and the syntax rules. Just free, and honest, and able to transform as the plot moves on.

Really, really reccommend Winterson.

That said, some are better than others. Written on the Body if you're feeling brave, very poetic, very emotional.

Oranges is probably a better start point, the beginnings of that loose narrative style, still quite witty.

Then, the Powerbook. Brilliant book, through and through, but very intense, so take it easy!

Good with milk.

Just finished this a week ago. I've read Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet. Of the 3, Fingersmith is the most exciting plot wise - with all the twists and the varrying povs. NW is my second fave above Tipping. Although it was sad and didn't have enough hot lesbian action ;) I really liked how character driven it was and again, the structure of the story telling. It was kind of sad but hopeful as well.

I'm probably going to read Affinity next. Does anyone have any opinions about that?

Also, did you guys picture an actress while reading NW? To me, I always saw Lena Headey as Kay. And then I alternated Elaine Cassidy between Julia and Helen!

Hiya all,

I really didn't enjoy The Night Watch - got to a certain part, where the woman was self-harming and I tuned out because I used to be a self-harmer and didn't want to read about it. Anyway, that was a bit personal. Moving on, I didn't enjoy Affinity because I think there was such high expectations on SW after TTV that Affinty flopped. Fingersmith was great, although I still prefer TTV. I'm interested to see how SW is going to develop herself. I read in an interview with her that she's going to gradually move away from the 1800's and move into the 90's. Like, I think her next book is going to be in the 60's.

Overal though, she's an excellent writer whose broken through the barriers to become popular and I really enjoy her work in general!

I´ve read Affinity, Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. I really liked both TTV and Fingersmith. Affinity is very different, a bit dark and not as memorable for me as the other two. Haven´t read Nightwatch yet, but I know I will. :-)

I read The Night Watch, and while it isn't my favorite Sarah Waters book, I still thought it was good. Tipping the Velvet is very high on my list, as is Fingersmith. I read Affinity, but can't recall much about it, quite honestly.

Winterson always impresses me. I really enjoyed what I think is her most recent book - the Lighthousekeeper.

Jeanette Winterson is on a higher plane, but I tend to unconsciously expect less in the way of good fiction when reading "lesbian books."  I hate that the one to deliver the message was George W. Bush, but in a speech clearly written by a more intelligent speechwriter he used the words "the soft bigotry of low expectations."  Though I'm sure he would not understand the irony of me applying those words to lesbian fiction, I do, and it angers me that I have to.  I just feel like our fiction as a grand category could move further than it has.  Gay (male) fiction has--think The Line of Beauty (which, if you haven't read, you should).  So where are we?

As for Waters, I enjoyed Tipping the Velvet more than The Night Watch, but I find I still read her novels differently--not like I would read Winterson or my usual literature written by dead and mostly straight people.  Thus, I didn't even think about the vividness of her descriptions in the second part, or the "sad, but hopeful" emotions the novel evoked until they were mentioned here.  Thanks for making me look at this book as literature rather than as a lesbian rag.  I find I like it more now, and that's both surprising and promising.

@ leoncina & muze

Maybe you two would like Ann-Marie MacDonald's "Fall on Your Knees" and "The Way the Crow Flies". I wouldn't consider them solely lesbian novels, because they are so much more. There are family stories in both. The lesbian story and characters are integrated into the whole plot. Which I like. They are beautifully written. And there are multiple issues interwoven with the plot. I love her books and hope she'll write another one soon.

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian lesbian playwright/actress (she was in Better Than Chocolate)/novelist, by the way. In Germany, her books are published by a mainstream publisher. So are Sarah Waters' books. I have started reading Affinity but for some reason it doesn't hold my attention as much as TTV did. I like Margaret's perspective but when I get to the chapters in between that are written from Selina's perspective I find myself putting the book down. And all that ghost stuff isn't really my thing either.

I have read Disgrace and it was great: shocking, powerful, intriguing. And the setting is interesting. I honestly hadn't known much about the relationship between the races in South Africa after Apartheid ended. Johnathan Franzen's The Corrections also has a lesbian storyline which is well-told. And for people interested in gender queer and intersex stories I highly recommend Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. (That's it for the straight male authors.) There's always The Hours by Michael Cunningham, a fantastic book.

Seems, Leoncina and muze are right about the state of lesbian literature if I come up with more books by male authors than by women. Maybe someone here has read something with a great story written by a woman (no mysteries, or vampires) and can recommend it. I have ordered a copy of Winterson's Written On the Body and intend to read it very soon.

Thanks for responding to my post, everyone. It's great to talk about books in general. And lesbian literature in particular.

About Night Watch being transitional for Sarah Waters and that reminded me that I recall reading, although I can't be sure where, that SW was looking to move forward in time, away from the 1800s. I think she said something about her next book being set in the 1960s and so on and so forth. Now that it's been mentioned and my thoughts have been sparked, I daresay Night Watch is transitional.

Let us just hope that we are not all disappointed and that SW continues to be one of the most outstanding lesbian fiction writers of this era. I don't think I could ever really be disappointed, not deeply, but we can't get to confident in SW abilities as she could very well end up surprising us!

First, you can find the most recent interview with S.W. on her publisher's website:

http://www.virago.co.uk/virago/meet/waters_interview2.asp?TAG=&CID=virago

She says basically that the book will be set in the late 1940's, rural Britain, and no lesbian characters.  :-(  I have to say, even though I could see how brilliant Nightwatch was (and I loved the chronological order, in principle), I just couldn't get into any of the storylines or characters.  I agree with deedum that S.W. overreached with too many/too fragmented storylines.

 I also want to invite all Sarah Waters fans to the fanfiction site FingersmithFever.com, if you haven't already been there before!  It's as if Fingersmith never ended.  *sigh* We have a Yahoo group as well, to trade fanfic and other info (I say "we," but I'm just a participant -- I don't operate the site!).  I think many of us can agree that there is something really uniquely compelling about the novel and BBC adaptation, regardless of what we think of S.W.'s other works.  Hope to see you there!

Fingersmith is quite possibly one of the very best books written... and easily Waters' best.  (Night Watch...not so much.)  In fact, Fingersmith was so well written and entertaining I actually passed it on to my erm... straight friends to read and they all loved it.  Including my mom... who isn't exactly comfortable with "that sort" of subject matter.  She loved it and watched the mini!!

Night Watch was a serious disappointment.