Synopses & Reviews
In the aftermath of covering 9/11, English war reporter Stephen Sharkey and photographer Ben Frobisher leave New York and part company. Stephen returns to the devastating discovery of the end of his marriage; while on assignment in Afghanistan Ben is killed. Retreating to the English countryside to write a book questioning the role of the war reporter and photographer Stephen enters into complicated relationships with Bens widow Kate, a sculptor, her disturbing and sinister young studio assistant, and a young au-pair. Set far from the literal theatre of war,
Double Vision is nonetheless a novel about its representation and effects as Pat Barker once more lays bare the complexities of desire and violence.
Review
"The trio of novels published by Pat Barker since her Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road (1995) Another World (1998), Border Crossing (2001) and now Double Vision could perhaps be read as an unofficial trilogy, a response to the three Regeneration novels. Another World updates the memory of the First World War through a centenarian survivor, Geordie, whose academic interviewer theorizes that the cultural climate renders anecdotal recollections of the war conveniently pliable. In the same novel, in a parallel plot about the dysfunctional family of Geordie's grandson Nick, Barker took her readers back to the sullen airs of contemporary Northern England that she had bottled before Regeneration fever took over. And all three novels feature a particularly grim motif to do with child offenders that equals the most brutal acts of war, which caused some critics to read Border Crossing as a commentary on the James Bulger case...." Michael Caines, Times Literary Supplement (read the entire TLS review)
Review
"[C]omplex, deeply engaging...At its best, the ideas are real, the suspense is real, and the novel achieves a riveting marriage of theme and structure." Neil Gordon, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[A] gripping novel, noteworthy for the author's gifts as a stylist and her formidable, engaged intelligence." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[E]ffortless prose as sharp and polished as new frost....Highly recommended." Library Journal
Synopsis
Double Vision from Pat Barker, a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it
In the aftermath of September 11, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen, facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair, returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed.
Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Ben's writing and photography. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephen's maid, with whom he has begun an affair, was once lovers with Kate's new studio assistant, an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear, Peter's strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.
Synopsis
In the aftermath of covering 9/11, English war reporter Stephen Sharkey and photographer Ben Frobisher leave New York and part company. Stephen returns to the devastating discovery of the end of his marriage; while on assignment in Afghanistan Ben is killed. Retreating to the English countryside to write a book questioning the role of the war reporter and photographer Stephen enters into complicated relationships with Ben’s widow Kate, a sculptor, her disturbing and sinister young studio assistant, and a young au-pair. Set far from the literal theatre of war, Double Vision is nonetheless a novel about its representation and effects as Pat Barker once more lays bare the complexities of desire and violence.
Synopsis
From the author of Border Crossing comes a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it.
About the Author
PAT BARKER is the author of nine novels, most recently
Border Crossing. For her highly acclaimed Regeneration Trilogy, she was awarded the
Guardian fiction prize and the Booker Prize. She lives in England.