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Product Description
Set in London in 1918, `The Eye in the Door' is an intense and profoundly intelligent examination of the effects of war, continuing the interwoven stories of Dr William Rivers, Billy Prior, and Siegfried Sassoon begun in `Regeneration'.`The Eye in the Door' was awarded the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize, while the final volume in the `Regeneration' trilogy, `The Ghost Road', won the Booker Prize in 1995. Writing in the Sunday Times, Peter Kemp said, `In the climate of exhaustion and hysteria amid which the war is wearing to its close, pressures to fall into line become fierce and take ugly forms. At the forefront of her story, Barker places figures especially menaced by this: pacifists, conscientious objectors and homosexuals ... a sequel every bit as unwaveringly intense and intelligent as its predecessor'.
Amazon.com Review
The Eye in the Door is the second installation of Pat Barker's acclaimed and haunting historical fiction trilogy about British soldiers traumatized by World War I trench warfare and the methods used by psychiatrist William Rivers to treat them. As with the other two, the book was recognized with awards, winning the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize. Here, Lieutenant Billy Prior is tormented by figuring out which side of several coins does he live -- coward or hero, crazy or sane, homosexual or heterosexual, upper class or lower. He represents the upheaval in Britain during the war and the severe trauma felt by its soldiers. The writing is sparse yet multilayered; Barker uses the lives of a few to capture an entire society during a tumultuous period.
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