The Eye In The Door

Pat Barker

Second in Barker's Regeneration Trilogy. This story tends to concentrate on one character, Billy Prior, who is a military officer taken off active military duty due to asthma and given a desk job in the military. The rest of the book includes other characters who, similarly to Billy, are also trying to reconcile opposite reactions to the war. On the one hand, they feel that the war is taking too much of a toll on the young men and they themselves are still suffering from the trauma. And yet, from birth, they have been conditioned to keep that stiff upper lip and the position that only cowards flee from the war. As in Regeneration, Barker narrates with elegance and understatement. Much of the story focuses on the psyches of the characters, which I enjoyed. I loved the interactions between characters, especially because it concerned the development of feelings between men. It went beyond carmaraderie, it was a genuine caring, protective feeling about the welfare of your fellow officer, the men under your care but without sentimentality. However, this story didn't seem quite as good as Regeneration, which was superb. I felt as if there was no resolution at the end of this story and ended up feeling just a touch dissatisfied.