Book 7: "The Eye in the Door" by Pat Barker
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 06:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeBecause his sleep was light, he knew he was dreaming, and he knew also that he had to wake up before something worse happened. He turned and saw the eye watching him, an eye not painted but very much alive. The white glittered in the moonlight. The same noise of emptiness he'd heard in France had followed him into the cell. He stared at the eye, and then, by a supreme effort of will, forced himself to sit up.
The stories of 'temporary gentleman' Billy Prior, the poet Siegfried Sassoon and the army psychologist Rivers continue in the second part of the Regeneration trilogy, along with that of a new character, the wounded homosexual officer Charles Manning. Themes include class struggle, anti-war activists disrupting munitions production, an army doctor's attempts to balance the conflicting needs of the army and his patients, and anti-homosexual propaganda.
I'd never heard of the Black Book and the 47,000 names, the Pemberton Billings case or the attempt to kill Lloyd George, so it has increased my knowledge of the WWI period, but overall I think I preferred the first book.
Then Manning said, 'You sound almost as if you want to go back.'
'Yes, I suppose I do, in a way. It's odd, isn't it? In spite of everything - I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it seems the only clean place to be.'
The stories of 'temporary gentleman' Billy Prior, the poet Siegfried Sassoon and the army psychologist Rivers continue in the second part of the Regeneration trilogy, along with that of a new character, the wounded homosexual officer Charles Manning. Themes include class struggle, anti-war activists disrupting munitions production, an army doctor's attempts to balance the conflicting needs of the army and his patients, and anti-homosexual propaganda.
I'd never heard of the Black Book and the 47,000 names, the Pemberton Billings case or the attempt to kill Lloyd George, so it has increased my knowledge of the WWI period, but overall I think I preferred the first book.
Then Manning said, 'You sound almost as if you want to go back.'
'Yes, I suppose I do, in a way. It's odd, isn't it? In spite of everything - I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it seems the only clean place to be.'
