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A review by lucy_clay
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
2.0
The second book of Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy was the most underwhelming of the three. Following on from the story of Billy Prior after his release from Craiglockheart, we follow him and Rivers to London where Prior is working in the Ministry of Munitions and Rivers is still tending to patients of the war. Whilst this book wasn't terrible in any way, I found that I had no investment in the story or characters, and was turning the pages more to finish it and move to something else rather than because I was interested in the story. A definite disappointment!
Prior, working in intelligence, experiences numerous conflicts and difficulties in the book, from his duty as a soldier to his homosexual relations. Struggling with a grasp of what is right and wrong, his time in London sends him into fits of panic and long periods where he forgets what he has been doing. He begins seeing Rivers again to understand the nature of his episodes. Dealing with the government's view of and response to traitors, spies and homosexuals in the war, The Eye in the Door is a good idea, but one that goes nowhere and feels both lacklustre and pointless.
One of the most interesting aspects of Regeneration had been the focus on Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but these characters are merely peripheral (or unmentioned) in the Eye in the Door, meaning that the largest success of Regeneration is completely eradicated from the second book. Instead of creating new stories for these interesting and engaging characters, Barker filled their void with smaller plotlines that often went nowhere, leaving the reader confused with a sense that they were missing something important as they turned the final page.
An underwhelming follow-up to a brilliant first book.
Prior, working in intelligence, experiences numerous conflicts and difficulties in the book, from his duty as a soldier to his homosexual relations. Struggling with a grasp of what is right and wrong, his time in London sends him into fits of panic and long periods where he forgets what he has been doing. He begins seeing Rivers again to understand the nature of his episodes. Dealing with the government's view of and response to traitors, spies and homosexuals in the war, The Eye in the Door is a good idea, but one that goes nowhere and feels both lacklustre and pointless.
One of the most interesting aspects of Regeneration had been the focus on Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but these characters are merely peripheral (or unmentioned) in the Eye in the Door, meaning that the largest success of Regeneration is completely eradicated from the second book. Instead of creating new stories for these interesting and engaging characters, Barker filled their void with smaller plotlines that often went nowhere, leaving the reader confused with a sense that they were missing something important as they turned the final page.
An underwhelming follow-up to a brilliant first book.