Life Struggle: Hugh MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

This 29th volume in ECW’s Canadian Fiction Studies series, aimed at
high-school and university students, introduces readers to MacLennan’s
novel using the established series format, with sections entitled “The
Importance of the Work,” the “Critical Reception,” “Reading the
Text,” and “Interpreting the Text.” W.J. Keith, one of our most
perceptive readers of Canadian fiction, writes without a trace of
literary or theoretical jargon, is willing to acknowledge the blemishes
as well as the beauties, and is concerned, like MacLennan himself, that
style and content be harmonious.

Keith makes no easy assumptions, nor does he condescend to his readers.
He recognizes that the novel is a complex one; it vivifies human
concerns—spiritual crises—not easily redefined in a theoretical way.
He therefore discusses rather than explains, and thereby enriches rather
than diminishes. His conclusion: “It seems to me not unlikely that
MacLennan’s general reputation as a significant literary figure will
decline somewhat over the course of time. But The Watch That Ends the
Night is his least contrived novel, and its combination of documentary
vividness and personal urgency ought to cause it to emerge as a book of
lasting interest.”