Double Vision

This is a finely crafted story about two people who meet in the modern world and interact with each other in very adult ways. The husband of one was in Afghanistan while the other covered 9/11. The story is full of real dialogue and even more realistic reactions to sometimes tragic events. Johanna Ward adds even more layers to this book with an extraordinary performance of the material. When she's narrating events, Ward's British accent is forceful and spare. When she performs dialogue, her characters betray complex emotions and longings in the face of crisis. Ward's performance is more than just a recitation of words. She embraces Barker's prose, coaxes more meaning from it, and makes us understand it more fully. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

November 10, 2003
The quaint English village of Barker's 10th novel is a world away from the wars—in Bosnia, Afghanistan and elsewhere—that have scarred its main characters, but the specter of violence still looms. Kate Frobisher, a sculptor working on a monumental figure of Jesus, is recovering from a car accident and grieving for her husband, Ben, a war photographer killed in Afghanistan. Stephen Sharkey, a journalist (and friend of Ben's) suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after covering Bosnia, Rwanda and other conflicts, has left London and a failed marriage to write a book about "the way wars are represented." An ensemble cast gathers around these two haunted figures: Stephen's brother Robert and his family; Alec Braithewaite, the friendly vicar, and his Cambridge-bound daughter Justine; and Peter Wingrave, Kate's studio assistant and Justine's ex. A predictable mix of domestic drama (the Sharkeys' marital woes, a romance between Stephen and Justine) plays out against the backdrop of current events, but the real theme of this insightful, harrowing novel is violence: its impact on victims, but also on those who witness it and those who tell the tale. As Barker's characters are forced to acknowledge, aggression and brutality are close at hand. And Barker spares no unsettling effect—animals are turned into bloody heaps of roadkill; Kate grows paranoid about solitary Peter; Justine is the victim of a terrible beating. The effect of such unrelenting darkness is to render the story less dramatic and convincing, but this is still a gripping novel, noteworthy for the author's gifts as a stylist and her formidable, engaged intelligence. (Dec.)

Forecast:
Barker's fictional take on the psychological costs of contemporary warfare bests other recent efforts (Michael Ignatieff's
Charlie Johnson in the Flames ; Gil Courtemanche,
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali ), and should benefit by association with Barker's brilliant evocation of WWI in her popular Regeneration Trilogy.