Pat Barker is a brilliant writer. This is the second part of her WWI psychiatry trilogy. It is layered, full of cultural and historic detail, and triggers internal conversations galore. I’m thinking of passing Hilary Mantel’s ‘best living English woman writer’ to Barker. Her writing is so good it is easy to miss how good it is.

The second book in the trilogy; just as good and it helps a great deal to have read the first. As previously Barker does an excellent job of weaving fact and fiction together.
We have moved on to early 1918 and the war is still in the balance. One of the fictional characters from Regeneration, Billy Prior, is also central to this novel. Dr Rivers is now in London (as is Prior) and we are plunged into a society struggling with the consequences of war and some of the hysteria that goes with it. Barker focuses on the maelstrom of opinion, debate and misinformation that comes with a society at war. She uses Prior, unfit to return to France, working for military intelligence and having affairs with men and women to take us round what is happening. Barker describes the lives of those opposing the war, pacifists and those sheltering deserters and those contemplating more drastic measures.
There is also a window on one of the more bizarre incidents which took place in Britain, which would be entirely unbelievable, if it wasn’t true. The varied attitudes towards because of the strains of wartime have been well documented. However one particular sensational libel case stands out. Noel Pemberton Billing (aviator and would be MP) was convinced that homosexuality was infiltrating society and damaging the war effort. He was convinced the Germans had a list of 47 000 prominent homosexuals who they could blackmail. He teamed up with Harold Spencer who was working for the secret services. They were convinced the Germans were trying to “propagate evils which all decent men thought had perished in Sodom and Lesbia”. Even Margot Asquith was publicly attacked. However they particularly disliked Robbie Ross and old friend and supporter of Wilde. He had organised a production of Wilde’s Salome with Maud Allen in the lead role. Billing published an article called The Cult of the Clitoris which accused Allen of being a lesbian. She sued Billing and lost. The strain told on Ross and he died before the end of the war. Barker weaves all of this into the novel very effectively via Prior and a new character Manning and builds the feeling of paranoia very effectively.
Again the descriptions of the nightmares, the effects of “shell-shock” and its varying treatment are very effective and one remains in no doubt about the horrors of war. Sassoon features again, fighting his demons with the help of Rivers; but it is Prior who takes centre stage. He is a complex character and Barker analyses his bisexuality and the effects trauma has on his psyche. It’s excellent stuff and well worth the effort of seeking out.

This is the second book of the Regeneration trilogy.

This is the story of another soldier, Billy Prior, and the neurologist Dr. Rivers.

Some sub-plots come up during the story.

The author describes Beattie Roper's story which is based on the  "poison plot" of 1917: "Alice Wheeldon was jailed in 1917 for plotting to poison Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Her descendants, having read research by Dr Nick Hiley, of the University of Kent, are convinced she was framed by MI5."

The other sub-plot is concerned about "The Cult of the Clitoris": "In 1918 the British MP Noel Pemberton Billing, in his own journal, Vigilante, published an article, "The Cult of the Clitoris" which implied that Allan, then appearing in Maud Allan's - Vision of Salome -, was a lesbian associate of German wartime conspirators."

By the end of the narrative, Siegfried Sassoon reappears who have suffered a head injury during his return from France and Dr. Rivers is called back in order to assist his previous patient.

Excellent, just like the two others in the series

In this instalment, Billy Prior takes centre stage. He turns out to be a double agent who happens to be bisexual and schizophrenic. In contrast to book I, in which I found it strange how homosexuality could not even be named, this novel begins with a very detailed sex scene between two men.
That’s one interesting development…

After an alleged attempted assassination of the British prime minister, Prior is deeply involved in cracking down this supposed ring of terrorists, as it happens that he was childhood friends with the perpetrators.

Another subplot deals with Robert Ross and the smear campaign against homosexuals by a right-wing politician – which I had never heard about, and which is not comprehensibly made clear in Ms Barker’s writing. At least this novel provided an afterword with the historical context, without which I would have been completely at sea. My advice to all readers: read the afterword first!

Pat Barker gives insight into aspects of WW1 that are rarely talked about: espionage, pacifism, and the social and legal ostracism of homosexuals and conscientious objectors. All these are very worthy themes to point the contemporary readers’ attention to. However, as in book I, the writing is very indirect and difficult to see though. The writer seems to expect a high level of prior knowledge from her readers.

I liked this book, however I am a bit disappointed as after a while I got the impression that Barker was continuing the series simply because she could rather than because it was necessary. While it is still very well written and interesting to find out more about the character of Prior, I felt the gratuitous sex somewhat unnecessary. I would also have appreciated it more if it focused on some of the other characters in Regeneration, rather than simply on Prior, although it is true that the other important ones were real people and therefore it would have been harder to do so.

In the second part of the trilogy, we leave the psychiatric hospital for a while to deal with the group psychoses that were prevailed in Britain during the last years of the war. The prolongation of the war and the deadlock that was led to created the best ground for the development of all sorts of theories and at some point this situation reached a level of hysteria. Everywhere people saw spies and found them mainly in these groups where they had previously directed their suspicion. Homosexuals, socialists, pacifists, human rights defenders, people with German names, even women who questioned the traditional gender roles, were targeting and among them were looking for the reason why the war did not go well.

Back to the psychiatric hospital they are watching this situation and discussions about this strange phenomenon are commonplace, which gives the author the opportunity to make an interesting parallel between the individual psychoses of the patients caused by their participation in the war and the group psychoses concern the entire nation, also the result of the wound left by the war. Parallelism goes one step further, as there is a sense of individual duty, there is also a group one, as we are wondering about the need for individual sacrifice, we are wondering about the need of the group one. So the book may not have such emotional tension as the first part of the trilogy, but certainly we are driven to very interesting thoughts and we are further deepening on the consequences of the war.

Στο δεύτερο μέρος της τριλογίας αφήνουμε για λίγο το ψυχιατρείο για να ασχοληθούμε με τις ομαδικές ψυχώσεις που κυριαρχούσαν στην Βρετανία τα τελευταία χρόνια του πολέμου. Η παράταση του πολέμου και το αδιέξοδο στο οποίο είχε οδηγηθεί δημιουργούσαν το καλύτερο έδαφος για να αναπτυχθούν κάθε είδους θεωρίες και κάποια στιγμή αυτή η κατάσταση έφτασε σε επίπεδο υστερίας. Παντού ο κόσμος έβλεπε κατασκόπους και τους εντόπιζε κυρίως σε αυτές τις ομάδες όπου από πριν κατεύθυνε την καχυποψία του. Ομοφυλόφιλοι, σοσιαλιστές, ειρηνιστές, υπέρμαχοι των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, άνθρωποι με γερμανικά ονόματα, ακόμα και γυναίκες που αμφισβητούσαν τους παραδοσιακούς ρόλους των δύο φύλων, έμπαιναν στο στόχαστρο και ανάμεσά τους αναζητούσαν την αιτία που ο πόλεμος δεν πήγαινε καλά.

Πίσω στο ψυχιατρείο παρακολουθούν αυτή την κατάσταση και οι συζητήσεις αφορούν αυτό το περίεργο φαινόμενο είναι κάτι συνηθισμένο, κάτι που δίνει στην συγγραφέα τη δυνατότητα να κάνει έναν ενδιαφέρον παραλληλισμό ανάμεσα στις ατομικές ψυχώσεις των ασθενών που προκλήθηκαν από τη συμμετοχή τους στον πόλεμο και στις ομαδικές ψυχώσεις που αφορούν ολόκληρο το έθνος και είναι και αυτές αποτέλεσμα του τραύματος που έχει αφήσει ο πόλεμος. Ο παραλληλισμός πηγαίνει και ένα βήμα παραπάνω, όπως υπάρχει η αίσθηση του ατομικού καθήκοντος, υπάρχει και αυτή του ομαδικού, όπως αναρωτιόμαστε για την ανάγκη της ατομικής θυσίας, αναρωτιόμαστε για την ανάγκη της ομαδικής. Έτσι μπορεί το βιβλίο να μην έχει τόση συναισθηματική ένταση όπως το πρώτο μέρος της τριλογίας, σίγουρα, όμως, οδηγούμαστε σε πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες σκέψεις και εμβαθύνουμε ακόμα περισσότερο στις συνέπειες του πολέμου.

This 2nd book in the series doesn’t, for me, have the same connection as Regeneration. I found myself piecing together the flow of the events after each chapter. The narrative tends to jump around and I found myself struggling to remain focused. It could be that this is a bridge to the final book the Ghost Road. Whilst many of the events are bound in truth I find it difficult to link this to the enormous loss of life during this period. During the Battle of The Somme in 1916, 19,240 men were killed on the British side and up to 12,000 Germans on the 1st day alone and this series doesn’t bring that into focus. Treating mental illness of those fortunate enough to be repatriated is noble but that generation should have treated the mental illness that let their leaders to run them into the slaughter.

The second book in the trilogy centres on the character of Billy Prior and his time in London. The story is no longer taking place in the hospital, though Dr Rivers is still treating Prior’s trauma. Initially, I wasn’t as invested in this book as I had been in the first, but how Billy’s trauma, how it manifests and how it is dealt with definitely peaked my interest and I became more engaged. Billy isn’t a terribly likeable character but he’s an interesting one nonetheless. There was an exchange between he and the doctor that really gave both characters an interesting arc of development which really elevated the book for me.

Well well well. I enjoyed re-reading this as much as I did the first time, but was more sensitive to Barker's references of the political atmosphere of the time. This reading triggered me to seek more information about the Pemberton Billing trial (ultimately, I found the case bewildering and a failure of the system in the midst of war. As fictional Rivers suggests, an outcome of civilians' "sadistic impulses aroused that would normally be repressed"). I truly recognised the complexity of the Great War beyond the frontlines, from the characters' coping mechanisms to the political unrest. Of course, I gave up thinking about right and wrong.

We see Rivers trying to come to terms with his professional abilities ("Physician, heal thyself"), Prior acknowledging (more like struggling with haha) his dual states, Sassoon's depression bordering on insanity and the way many of these characters dissociate from reality (or, create a few versions of themselves) in the face of trauma. And of course, love that toes the line of societal (and military) expectations. Gah. It's a lot and I can't put it all into words.

Note: this book makes more sense if you have read the first book of the Regeneration trilogy, which was also a fantastic read.

With the second part of Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy, the action moves south from Edinburgh to London. Billy Prior is not deemed fit enough to return to the front and is assigned a job in the intelligence service. He still stays in touch with his psychiatrist dr. Rivers, who has also moved south.

The dark and fragmented plot is set against the background of two historical events which took place in London during the final years of the Great War: a failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Lloyd George (involving poisonous darts) and a libel case, as populist politicians regarded homosexuality as a threat to the nation’s manliness.

The Eye in the Door deals with inner conflict in times of turmoil. Billy Prior suffers not only the various traumata of war, but also bears the scars of a troubled childhood. He repeatedly has black-outs, wakes up feeling like he’s having other people’s hangovers, investigates his underwear for any signs of recent activity. With his girlfriend up north, he has become a ghostlike figure, he has developed a split personality, a sexual Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde.

Siegfried Sassoon, torn between his duty as a soldier and his rage against the injustice and utter inhumanity of the prolonged war, becomes suicidal and army psychiatrist Dr. Rivers finds it increasingly difficult to maintain the scientific objectivity. He has declared Sassoon sane enough to return to the insanity of war and has come to realize that some events are so insane that going crazy might just be the only sensible reaction to it. It’s the ones that do not go crazy in the horror of the trenches, that are really, really sick.

The Great War, which still rages in France, resonates darkly throughout the eerie and troublesome second part of the trilogy. The Eye in the Door is not an easy read. As a reader you share Prior’s struggle to get a grip on what is going on, while the themes move from war traumata to (sexual) identity and class struggle.

The Eye in the Door is worth reading as a bridge between Regeneration and The Ghost Road, but its difficulty and darkness makes this my least favourite part of the trilogy.

Don’t start here.

I really enjoy Barker’s writing. The three star rating doesn’t really reflect any specific shortcomings of the book except that it feels like the first half of a whole book - and we shall see if that is what it functionally is - once I finish the third book of this trilogy.