{"product_id":"9781921921988","title":"The Watch Tower","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Harrower's greatest novel [is] \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e (1966), the bitter story of two sisters, Laura and Clare, who lose their parents and fall under the sway of Felix Shaw, an abusive and controlling drunk...[It is] her masterpiece.’ James Wood, \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter Laura and Clare are abandoned by their mother, Felix is there to help, even to marry Laura if she will have him. Little by little the two sisters grow complicit with his obsessions, his cruelty, his need to control.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSet in the leafy northern suburbs of Sydney during the 1940s, \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of relentless and acute psychological power.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Harrower\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Sydney in 1928. Her first novel \u003ci\u003eDown in the City\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1957, and was followed by \u003ci\u003eThe Long Prospect\u003c\/i\u003e a year later. In 1959 she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the \u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1960 she published \u003ci\u003eThe Catherine Wheel\u003c\/i\u003e, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney. \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e appeared in 1966. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia. Elizabeth Harrower lives in Sydney.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'Haunting and delicate.' \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'This is a harrowing novel, relentless in its depiction of marital enslavement, spiritual self-destruction and the exploited condition of women in a masculinist society...It is a brilliant achievement.' \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'Haunting...Harrower captures brilliantly the struggle to retain a self.' \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘Each of Harrower’s four novels is concerned with entrapment of one sort or another, through family or youth or love. But \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower,\u003c\/i\u003e her last novel, is almost like a distillation in its vision of the forces of good and evil. Something runs clear and strong through this wonderful, painful novel, the dark and the light. The victim and the survivor. Suffering and joy. The knowledge of both. Reality.’ \u003cb\u003eJoan London, \u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'Elizabeth Harrower's thrilling 1966 novel \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e comes rampaging back from decades of disgraceful neglect: a wartime Sydney story of two abandoned sisters and the arrival in their lives of Felix, one of literature's most ferociously realised nasty pieces of work.' \u003cb\u003eHelen Garner, \u003ci\u003eAustralian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'I read this book twice. Once for sheer pleasure - if pleasure can be the correct term for an experience that is so distressing - and once for the purposes of this review...It left me with the strongest sense I have had for a very long time of the infinite preciousness of consciousness, at whatever cost, and of our terrifying human vulnerability.' \u003cb\u003eSalley Vickers, \u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'A superb psychological novel that will creep into your bones.' \u003cb\u003eMichelle de Kretser, \u003ci\u003eThe Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'I read \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e with a mixture of fascination and horror. It was impossible to put down. I then read all Harrower's novels: \u003ci\u003eThe Long Prospect\u003c\/i\u003e (a prescient study of a relationship between a man and a clever but unrecognised young girl), \u003ci\u003eDown in the City\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Catherine Wheel\u003c\/i\u003e. Her acute psychological assessments are made from gestures, language and glances and she is brilliant on power, isolation and class.' \u003cb\u003eRamona Koval, \u003ci\u003eAustralian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘To create a monster as continually credible, comic and nauseating as Felix is a feat of a very high order. But to control that creation, as Miss Harrower does, so that Clare remains the centre of interest is an achievement even more rare. \u003ci\u003eThe Watch Tower\u003c\/i\u003e is a triumph of art over virtuosity...a dense, profoundly moral novel of our time.’ \u003cb\u003eH.G. Kippax, \u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e, 19 November 1966\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘Beautifully written and a powerful commentary on the subjugation of women in the 1940’s both in the work place and in the home, Harrower has created a complex array of characters. The psychological tight rope that Laura and Clare must walk on a daily basis is deeply felt by the reader. The book is surely a mini-masterpiece.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSalty Popcorn\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘As gripping and terrifying as any horror story…An astonishing book.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Harrower’s stark examination of two young women’s vulnerability and helplessness in the face of a domineering man’s savagery is painful to read. I have read it twice now and each time I have been moved by the clarity of Harrower’s vision, the terrible plausibility of her characters and the sheer power of the restrained emotion in her writing. It is a novel that deserves the closest and most attentive reading.’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTransnational Literature\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Text Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47141180309744,"sku":"9781921921988","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781921921988_p0.jpg?v=1763632746","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781921921988","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}