The Eye in the Door

Characters from Regeneration return in a tale set after World War I, as Britain undergoes a period of repression and psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers, poet Siegfried Sassoon, and Lieutenant Billy Prior cope with the war's aftermath. 15,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

British writer Barker's ability to invest what appears to be a simple narrative with many levels of meaning and to convey a harrowing story in spare, uncluttered prose was amply demonstrated in her acclaimed previous novel, Regeneration . This quietly powerful story begins in 1917, where Regeneration left off; the epigraph from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde hints at what is to come, referring to "the two natures that contended in . . . my consciousness." Though not as flamboyant as Stevenson's protagonist(s), all the main characters here are leading double lives, some consciously, others as a result of traumatic experiences. Having been released from Craiglockhart War Hospital (where shell-shock victims are sent to convalesce), Lt. Billy Prior is still concealing his working-class origins. Assigned to the Intelligence Unit, he must betray the very people who sheltered him when he was young, and soon his conscious mind succumbs to the pressure. If Prior has "a foot on both sides of the fence," so has patrician Charles Manning, who must conceal his homosexuality. Even the director of Craiglockhart, W.H.R. Rivers (an eminent neurologist and social anthropologist in real life) suffers from a mysterious loss of visual memory, stemming from a buried incident in his youth. And poet Siegfried Sasson again struggles to reconcile his pacifist beliefs with his need to stand by his men in battle. As in the earlier book, Barker uses their interaction to illuminate the terrible effects of conflict, but here she broadens her canvas to include the conscientious objectors, socialists and homosexuals who were accused of treasonous behavior during WW I. The multi-suggestive title applies to the hysterial outcry against "outsiders"; the observation hole in the prison door, behind which pacifists are jailed; the "eye in the door of the mind" that triggers dissociated states; and the particulars of a notorious court case of 1917 in which a demented bigot, supported by a prominent MP, accused 47,000 Englishmen and women of homosexuality, which ostensibly made them vulnerable to German blackmail. Writing with cool understatement, Barker conveys with equal skill the desperation of men suffering from battlefield trauma, the subtle ramifications of class distinctions in a period of rapid social change and the quality of life in Britain's poverty-stricken industrial areas. As haunting as its predecessor, this moving antiwar novel is also a cautionary tale about the price of cultural conformity.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Barker's Regeneration (1992) was a fine novelistic reconstruction of the psychiatric mission to heal British officers damaged by World War I horrors; this equally impressive companion volume investigates personal and societal breakdown in the war's final stages. London, April 1918. Haig has issued an order to ``fight on to the end.'' Civil liberties are being eroded, with pacifists and homosexuals the scapegoats. A woman pacifist, Beattie Roper, is doing time for ``plotting'' to kill Prime Minister Lloyd George, convicted on the evidence of Spragge, a government informer. There have been strikes in munition factories; their organizer, Patrick MacDowell, is on the run. Caught in the middle between the government and its ragtag opposition is Lieutenant Billy Prior. The working-class officer and ``temporary gentleman'' (class differences permeate the novel), last seen as one of neurologist Rivers's most difficult patients, now works for British Intelligence. His loyalties are divided; Mac was his closest childhood friend, while Beattie was a surrogate mother, but overarching those affections are his ties to the men in the trenches (``Picard clay was a powerful glue''). The agent provocateur Spragge is his one clear external enemy; his internal enemies are still legion. He starts experiencing fugue states (blackouts) that increasingly hamper his ability to hunt for Mac and battle Sprague until, undergoing more therapy, he and Rivers discover their childhood origin. Barker ingeniously meshes Prior's private demons with his public sleuthing in a fast-moving narrative that dazzles with its profusion of memorable cameos and encounters. Regeneration was dominated by the all too real Craiglockhart hospital and therapeutic practice; this work is dominated by the wholly fictional, marvelously complex Prior and is more satisfying novelistically. Together they form a remarkable achievement. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Characters from Barker's acclaimed previous novel, Regeneration, feature prominently in her latest one, an intense portrayal of lives touched by the pain and suffering of World War I. The narrative, set in 1918, focuses on witch-hunts that occurred in Great Britain, with homosexuals and pacifists as the targets of widespread persecution. Lt. Billy Prior is a fascinating, pivotal figure. A bisexual afflicted with a split personality disorder, Prior functions with significant difficulty as an intelligence officer caught between his working-class background and the upper-class military peers with whom he works. The relationship he forms with Dr. Rivers, a psychiatrist, and Rivers' empathetic relationships with other patients emerge as the backbone of a potent story, woven flawlessly with a stunning antiwar sentiment. Alice Joyce

Revisiting World War I England to explore war and its effects on individuals and society, Barker brings back characters that readers will remember from Regeneration(LJ 3/1/92), including bisexual war hero Billy Prior and psychiatrist William Rivers. In 1918, the war was not going well for the Allies, and hysteria took root-the targets being pacifists and homosexuals, who were allegedly open to blackmail. Prior has connections to a group of pacifists who are being persecuted, and he also suffers from psychological episodes in which his personality alters dramatically. Dr. Rivers treats both Prior and other homosexuals on "The 47,000," a list of all purported gays in Britain. This book lacks some of the emotional impact of Regeneration, but the plot is more complex and makes for a more compelling work. Recommended for most fiction collections.
C. Christopher Pavek, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. Information Ctr., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.