Krishna
This won the Booker prize and it shows. It is an elegantly written book. It is also the third book in a trilogy about World War I military life. As a person who read this first, out of sequence, I can tell you that the enjoyment is full without reading the first two. Of course, if you had read the first two books, you may get more out of it than I did.
Billy Prior is going for inspection in the army. He could have gotten a safe job through his father’s and friend’s influence but does not want it. His friend Owen and he join the army. He goes for inspection. We learn that he was discharged from army due to shell shock and was in intelligence at that time. Now he wants to go back in action before WW II ends and there is no more action. His lifelong wheezing and lactose intolerance may be an issue. We also learn that Prior has a split personality and his dual self comes out in times of stress and that no one knows it yet.
Dr Rivers, in the meanwhile is in a medical clinic which used to be a children’s hospital prior to the war and so has its walls filled with Alice in Wonderland scenes. We also learn that he knew Lewis Carroll personally. In addition we are treated to his patients, who are in need of mental health care. One of them, shell shocked, finds his feet unmovable until Dr Rivers puts a stocking on his leg and rolls them down slowly, “bringing” feeling back to portions of his leg. And then there is the other patient Geoffrey who killed a German prisoner with no compunction and for no other reason that he was angry with him but sees his rotting corpse standing by his bedside thereafter.
Dr Rivers himself has had an interesting childhood with snakes etc. Nice, lovely narration that takes you to the place and period being described. You can actually see it, and feel the ambiance. Pat is a very gifted writer.
Like everything Pat Barker writes about, his descriptions are terse, lyrical. Wonderful descriptions. Prior thinking that ‘Murder is only killing in the wrong place’ is profound in the context of military background and war.
The patients of Rivers provide a lot of colour. There is one who believes that the nurse who looks after him removed his penis when he was helpless on the bed, though he has a whole one still, is interesting. Description of life in itself is lovely.
Billy Prior’s agony about not being able to be alone with his betrothed Sarah due to her dragon mother who watches them like a hawk at all times is amusing.
Prior finds many parallels with the European attitudes at the camp and the prior experience with the tribals in Africa. Some scenes like how they keep dead Ngeau upright in a chair with a pole to keep the head straight and how they leave him in the sea are fascinating. As is the custom where the wife imitates the same pose (until death?) and how they get into a disused part of a cave with a swarm of bats that they disturb. All told in a unique style by Barker.
When Rivers finds that his wife will be immobile in a room until they bring ‘a head’ he dismisses it as fantasy. But the group really brings a boy ‘for his head’ and he is totally astounded. The boy lives there for a while and just when you think that the ‘head’ is still attached to the body he mysteriously disappears from view.
He finds the boy unharmed later and realizes that the ‘head’ is a figurative thing they collect. The ending of the book is chilling and the narration is lyrical, evocative, and leaves you pondering for a while after you read the book
7/10
– – Krishna (Jan 2019)