Billy Prior, who was a major character in the first book of the trilogy, Regeneration, now takes the reigns of the protagonist in the second book, The Eye in the Door. It is 1918 and Billy now works for the Ministry of Munitions. Billy is having some major slips in time and they seem to be getting longer in duration. He visits Rivers, who was the protagonist in Regeneration and Billy’s second personality makes an appearance. This is my favourite part in the novel. Much the same as the first novel Barker weaves fact and fiction to bind together an extremely interesting narrative. The facts with this novel revolve around a fabricated conspiracy to assassinate Lloyd George by Poison. We are taken into the world of the pacifists and the horrific torture and conditions they were subjected to if caught by the Ministry of Munitions spies. This is where the character of Billy Prior becomes so interesting, he has a foot in both camps. He has friends who are pacifists and deep down he is sympathetic to their cause, but he is also committed to his job and cannot shirk his responsibility. He is torn, and maybe this has something to do with the schizophrenia, although it seems to have been formed in the trenches. Barker also relies on history to touch on subjects such as class and homosexuality. The reference to a Black book containing 47000 names of homosexuals is purported to be in the hands of a German Prince and a British spy claims it will be used to create anarchy and unrest in England. We must remember this is 1917 and homosexuality was a crime. So just the rumour of such a book, especially considering there were some very high-level names said to be in it, could cause all sorts of damage. Barker shows us an England, that in hindsight you would expect from a country that is locked in an unpopular interminable war in a foreign land in this era, that is in chaos. You have the conscientious objectors, you have the pacifists, regular and militant, you have the spies and police tracking them down. You have enemy spies sowing discontent. Major resources are channelled into the war effort, food rationed, manpower, vital in the early twentieth century, severely depleted. I like the fact that Barker has stayed with the same format with this novel, using historical events and characters again, and it has the same feel of the first book. In my opinion Regeneration is the better of the two novels but this book is still a great read. 4 Stars.

4.5

I enjoyed this book enormously. When I finished the first book of the trilogy and saw that Prior was going to feature heavily in the next one, I wasn’t that enthusiastic because he had been my least favourite character. I much preferred him in this one however, and was very happy to see Rivers and Sassoon again.

It’s just such an interesting and readable book.

My only criticism is that the ending seemed abrupt, with lots of issues left unresolved. Perhaps they’ll be resolved in the final installment, and I can’t wait to find out!

The Regeneration Trilogy: I read these books in the late '90s, after Ghost Road was first published. I was in love with the British war poets of WWI at the time and this fit right in. I don't remember many details, but these books were great reads. Very athmospheric, accessible and captivating main characters, I suffered with them every step of the way.

P.S.: The movie is also very good.

The Eye In the Door is the second book of Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, dealing with aspects of the psychological damage caused by exposure to the horrors of World War I.

Many of the same characters (some real, some fictional) appear in this second installment - Dr Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Billy Prior and others.

Barker continues the themes of socio-political aspects of war along with the personal stories of damage and coping strategies for the (mostly) men involved. She also incorporates elements of real historical events that occurred in Britain around this time.

The Eye In the Door encompasses the treatment of homosexual men and the conscientious objectors (conchies) in this period, who were vilified and tormented for their practices and beliefs. Homosexuality was illegal as well as repugnant to society at large, although it was well known to be common, even among the upper classes.

There are many threads or sub-plots in this novel that I won't mention here.

What is most important in this novel is the eloquent and passionate writing of Barker who highlights issues of the time and situation which are frequently overlooked in novels about war and its personal impacts.

The backdrop of this one is the obsession that the English had around the Maud Allan libel case and the Pemberton-Billings agitation around Robbie Ross, Oscar Wilde’s literary executor and known homosexual. Dr. Rivers appears here again having moved on from Craiglockhart Hospital, and I loved him just as much in this installment as in Regeneration. My god Barker is brilliant at writing the mental and physical horrors of war (and I love that she gives you all of the sources to look at that she used). Off to get the final installment, The Ghost Road.

Although it feels very different for some reason to me than the preceding book, Regeneration, Eye in the Door is a just as fascinating look at psychological trauma and political conflict during WWI. Because this book revolves primarily around an entirely nonfictional character, Billy Prior, rather than some of the historically present characters like Sassoon, Graves, and others, it definitely reads more like a piece of fiction than Regeneration did. Nonetheless, Prior was in the first book one of the more interesting characters - perhaps because Barker has more license with an entirely fictional character - so it was interesting to hear more of his story and to discover how he's coping after he leaves the hospital. What astounds me the most about this book, and is true as well of Regeneration, is how true the voice feels and sounds. Who would think that a woman writing in the 9Os could so beautifully write using variety of masculine perspectives from a time as remote as WWI. She is a writer in a class of her own. Again, I would put her in the same category as some of the great American writers (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc.) from the last century, in terms of style, voice, and story.

Amazing. Amazing.

This is no 2 in the Trilogy. Its good at the beginning and the end! I am afraid the middle part of the plot lost me, or probably I lost it. I will read the third book in good time. Its a well thought through under reported effect of WWI and the emotional after effects which were life changing for many. It continues with the war poets Sassoon and Owen and also the conscientious objectors and the horrifying way they were dealt with. Homosexuality is also a strong theme in this sequel.

There were times when Prior was made physically sick by the sight and sound and smell of civilians. He remembered the stench that comes off a battalion of men marching back from the line, the thick yellow stench, and he thought how preferable it was to this. He knew he had to get off the streets, away from the chattering crowds and the whiffs of perfume that assaulted his nostrils whenever a woman walked past.


This is a revised review of the book.




the first edition (1993) cover, Penguin Books Ltd.


The following is an edited version of material from Wikipedia on the first two novels. (I remember very little of the story.)


This second novel of Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, set in London in the spring of 1918.

The first volume, whose two main characters were fictional portrayals of the real people Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, included a third important character, the fictional Billy Prior.

Prior was introduced as another of Rivers' patients at Craiglockhart who suffers from mutism and asthma. (A critic has suggested that his inability to speak highlights the novel's treatment of Western culture's inability to verbalise the mutilation of bodies caused by war.) Prior is a working-class officer risen to the rank of lieutenant, despite his background. Straddling the class divide, he sees the British army mirroring the class system, even in the trenches. As this character is developed by Barker, he's revealed to be bisexual.

The Eye in the Door continues the interwoven stories of Rivers, Sassoon, and Billy Prior. It ends some time before the conclusion of the First World War later the same year.

"Whereas Regeneration is an anomalous, but not unique, mixture of fact and fiction, The Eye in the Door acknowledges real events, including the campaign against homosexuals being waged that year by right-wing MP Noel Pemberton Billing, but remains consistently within the realm of fiction. This grants Barker more freedom to explore her characters and their actions, the descriptions of which might be considered libellous if attributed to real people. A major theme of the book, Prior's intense and indiscriminate bisexuality, is effectively contrasted with Rivers' tepid asexuality and Sassoon's pure homosexuality."

Barker presents a nuanced at detailed treatment of the psychological, political and professional life of Billy Prior, who seems to have become the central character.


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Το "Μάτι στην πόρτα " είναι το δεύτερο μέρος της πολεμικής τριλογίας της Βρετανίδας Πατ Μπάρκερ. Για την τριλογία αυτή (Ζωντανοί ξανα- Το μάτι στην πόρτα- Ο δρόμος των φαντασμάτων) κέρδισε το 1995 το βραβείο Μπούκερ και αφορά στον Πρώτο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και στις ιστορίες των ομοφυλόφιλων ποιητών Ζίγκφριντ Σάσουν, Βίλχελμ Όουεν, του ψυχιάτρου Ριβερς , αλλά και του φιξιοναλ bisexual στρατιώτη Πραιορ, από την εργατική τάξη.

Είχα μείνει κάγκελο, όταν μικρότερος την ανακάλυψα, με τον τρόπο που γράφει το σεξ αυτή η βρετανίδα. Τραχύς και κυνικός. Ο κάθε ήρωας της είναι σύνθετος/περίπλοκος/γκρι, υπάρχει και εκείνο το ονειρικό στοιχείο , το εφιαλτικό, το παραληρηματικό. Έχει εντελώς δικό της τρόπο να δίνει μια βαθιά μελετημένη ανασύνθεση της εποχής με την τότε πολιτική κατάσταση και τα κοινωνικά και σεξουαλικά της ήθη, από τις γυναίκες της εργατικής τάξης που βγήκαν στην παραγωγή, το φιλειρηνικό κίνημα των διανοούμενων και των σοσιαλιστών, μέχρι και τις ανθρωπολογικές μελέτες του Ρίβερς στον Ειρηνικό. Βιβλία που συνδυάζουν ιστορία και μπορούν μαζί να είναι αισθησιακά. Δεν ξέρω πόσοι τα έχουν πάρει χαμπάρι.

"Δε ζεσταινόταν. Στην πραγματικότητα, είχε πουντιάσει, που λένε. Εν πάση περιπτώσει. Έβγαλε τη γραβάτα του, το χιτώνιο του και το πουκάμισο του και τα πέταξε στην πλάτη μιας καρέκλας. Ο Μάνινγκ δεν είπε τίποτα, απλώς κοίταζε. Ο Πραιορ πέρασε τα δάχτυλα του ανάμεσα στα κουρεμένα του μαλλιά μέχρι που στάθηκαν όρθια σαν καρφιά, άναψε ένα τσιγάρο, το έστριψε με έναν χαρακτηριστικό τρόπο στο κάτω χείλι και χαμογέλασε. Είχε μεταμορφώσει τον εαυτό του σε εκείνο το είδος αγοριού της εργατικής τάξης που ο Μάνινγκ θεωρούσε ότι επιτρεπόταν να γαμήσει. Ένα είδος σπερμικού πτυελοδοχείου. Και έπιασε. Τα μάτια του Μάνινγκ σκούρυναν καθώς οι κόρες μεγάλωσαν .σκύβοντας πάνω του, ο Πραιορ έβαλε το χέρι του ανάμεσα στο πόδια του, και ταυτόχρονα σκέφτηκε πως ίσως ποτέ άλλοτε δεν είχε νιώσει αυτό το αίσθημα του πιο ανόθευτου ταξικού ανταγωνισμού να φουντώνει μέσα του, παρά εκείνη τη στιγμή. Η προφορά του βγήκε πιο άξεστη. Εντάξει;"(σελ/17)

Like the first book in the series, this book deals with the psychological damage of war upon those who serve on the front lines, in this case, the first World War. The action all takes place back in England, though there are some harrowing recalls of events at the front. The book provides a damning indictment of war and the techniques used to return those undergoing damage back into combat. Several of the characters are based on or portray real individuals. This is the second in a trilogy.

Already dreading the moment I will be finished with this trilogy…