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Sunday, March 2, 2014

TheWatchThatEndsTheNight

The Watch That Ends the Night by Allan Wolf (2011) is a fictional work that details the days leading up to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.  This work is not typical fiction by any stretch of the imagination.



Wolf chose to write about the ill-fated journey of the Titanic through many different perspectives.  He writes from behind the eyes of the captain, the ship builder, first/second/third class passengers, the baker, the radio operator, and many more of the ship's occupants.  He even writes from the perspective of the iceberg itself, and the rat which was stealing food from the pantry.

Even more unique, Wolf toggles from one perspective to the other on a page-at-a-time basis.  Amazingly, he writes most of the book (but not all) in free verse.  In addition, he does some of the writing using unconventional structural/visual forms (though no graphics or pictures are included).

This book is one of the most impressive pieces of literature I have encountered in my life time, both from a conceptual and from a structural perspective.  Simply amazing.

WOW!  If you love literature, put this one in your shopping cart.  Thanks for the rec, SB.

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