The Eye in the Door (Regeneration Trilogy , Vol 2)

Rating:
Summary: If you only read one war book -- make it 3 -- this trilogy!
Review: This is #2 of the Pat Barker trilogy about World War I, and this second book is as important as anything you're going to read about war in this challenging season (fall '01). She looks at the inner workings of fear, prejudice and scapegoating -- in the case of WWI Britain, homosexuals and pacificists. Scapegoating is alive and well in America right now, as we look for someone to blame, or someone on whom to take out our tensions. All too often it looks like the "someone" is a fellow American with whom we disagree. Read this book, for a deeper understanding of the stresses and strains of war -- on soldiers, yes, but also on us all.

Rating:
Summary: In many ways the most interesting volume in the trilogy
Review: This middle book in Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy tends to get ignored in favour of the other two. Undeservedly so. It at first appears to go off at a tangent from the first book, developing established characters in a way that can be shocking. Yet its vivid descriptions of personal encounters involving Lt Prior, his doctor, his old and new friends, his parents and his lover are riveting, resulting in an overall impression that grips the imagination. I actually find it the most interesting of the three books.