Double Vision: A Novel [Paperback]

Pat Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A story that is both terrifying and fascinating....Wholly engrossing."
--Neil Gordon, New York Times Book Review
"One doesn't often find the caliber of writing displayed in Barker's latest, a compulsively readable novel."
--Joanne Wilinson, Booklist
"As briskly taut as a thriller and, at the same time, a deeply thoughtful consideration of how our lives are changed by sweeping historical tragedy and everyday acts of violence...We keep paging rapidly through the novel, even as we pause to admire the trenchant reflections."
--Francine Prose, O Magazine

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Picador (November 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312424108
• ISBN-13: 978-0312424107
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking good read, April 6, 2005

By 

Stephen Evans (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Double Vision: A Novel (Paperback)

It's a long time since I read a book in a day, and it's a long time since I read a novel that made the hairs on my legs stiffen and my skin shiver with fear, but I did with this one.

Pat Barker has always appealed as the author of novels of nuance and subtlety but which don't become over-literary in a "school of creative writing" way. But she excels herself in this book. It's about lots of things: why people cover wars and what covering wars sometimes does to their minds; about love and loyalty. But it's also a very good yarn. Pat Barker has an old-fashioned and utterly welcome belief in plot and comprehensibility. Double Vision is a very good read - plus a lot more.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Double Vision, August 20, 2006

By 

Mark F. Hussey "Mark Hussey" (Nyack NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Vision: A Novel (Paperback)

Pat Barker is brilliant novelist, best known for her "Regeneration" trilogy about WWI. "Double Vision" is also about war, but about its aftermath, and about war now--the state of endless war we live in during the 21st century. There are several surprises in this novel, whose characters are rich and deep, and whose plot has the kind of pace a tv thriller might have. Although on the surface it seems simple enough, the novel in fact is opening up very complex questions about the ethics of making images of atrocities and combat, as well as about the nature of love.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Double vision may mean taking a second look., February 1, 2007

By 

C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Vision: A Novel (Paperback)

Pat Barker gets right to the point - she is a direct story teller. Even though she is extremely skillful as a writer, with a wonderful skill for description of person and place, she believes in telling a comprehensible story with beginning, middle, and end and none of that ambiguous hanging ending that can be too arty and frustrating.

Well what was this story about? Well it is about as many themes as there were primary characters. It is about grief and recovery from grief. It is about starting love over again with mature eyes. It is about recognizing that your ego blinds you to dangers.

Kate has lost her photographer husband in Afganistan, yet she moves forward, she continues to create, and she continues to be brave.

Steven has seen it all and experienced it all as a war correspondent and now a newly divorced man. Yet he allows first unexpected lust and then unexpected love to be kindled in a relationship with a young woman, Justine, 20 years younger than himself.

Alec, the Episcopal minister and father of Justine, appears to be the humble wise man of God, but in fact he is an egotist who thinks he can really help ex-prisoners make a change in their lives, yet his ego is so big he puts his daughter, Justine, in danger.

Peter is an ex-prisoner around 30 years old, who killed a woman when he was 10. Pat Barker plays a game with the reader in that she gradually reveals disturbing information about Peter, making him into somewhat of a Patricia Highsmith type of villian, but by the end of the novel, we see that he is a catalyst. He revealed to Kate her inner courage; he is Justine's ex-lover who decides to break up with her rather than reveal his past; he is Stephen's competition; and he is the instrument that brings Alec into true humility from his egotism. He is not a Highsmith or Hitchcock villian as Barker would lead us to believe in the early clues she puts in our path in the first chapters.

The book is packed full of literary skill.