What do you think?
Rate this book
Double Vision
A gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing it
In the aftermath of September 11, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen, facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair, returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed.
Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Ben's writing and photography. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephen's maid, with whom he has begun an affair, was once lovers with Kate's new studio assistant, an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear, Peter's strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.
In the aftermath of September 11, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen, facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair, returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed.
Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Ben's writing and photography. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephen's maid, with whom he has begun an affair, was once lovers with Kate's new studio assistant, an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear, Peter's strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
24 people are currently reading
555 people want to read
About the author
Pat Barker
26 books2,635 followersPat Barker is an English writer known for her fiction exploring themes of memory, trauma, and survival. She gained prominence with Union Street (1982), a stark portrayal of working-class women's lives, and later achieved critical acclaim with the Regeneration Trilogy (1991–1995), a series blending history and fiction to examine the psychological impact of World War I. The final book, The Ghost Road (1995), won the Booker Prize. In recent years, she has turned to retelling classical myths from a female perspective, beginning with The Silence of the Girls (2018). Barker's work is widely recognized for its direct and unflinching storytelling.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
March 4, 2021
DOUBLE VISION (2003) centers on Stephen Sharkey, a war correspondent who has come to stay in his brother’s isolated holiday cottage. He has resigned from his job and plans to write a book on the representation of violence and our responses to it. There's also Kate Frobisher, widow of Sharkey’s war photographer colleague, Ben. She is a sculptor who is struggling with injuries sustained in a recent car accident. There are other interconnected characters too, one of which is a sinister young assistant working for Kate. At some point, the reader who has read Barker's previous book, BORDER CROSSING, will realize that this creepy character has already appeared there, under a different name.
DOUBLE VISION seems to be, initially, a thriller. It is claustrophobic, fast paced and gripping. There is an atmosphere of threatened violence right from the beginning, the storytelling is vivid and compelling. The story has a lot of potential: a meditation about war, the representation of violence, the nature of evil, so it can also be described as a novel of ideas.
It is not a thriller nor a novel of ideas, though. All the cleverly constructed suspense dwindles into nothing, the exploration of ideas clashes with the devices required by a thriller, the characters are hardly credible, the coincidences are simply too many.
I liked Pat Barker's first novels very much, also her REGENERATION trilogy. This novel, however, was disappointing, as was her previous one. Only 2,5 ⭐.
DOUBLE VISION seems to be, initially, a thriller. It is claustrophobic, fast paced and gripping. There is an atmosphere of threatened violence right from the beginning, the storytelling is vivid and compelling. The story has a lot of potential: a meditation about war, the representation of violence, the nature of evil, so it can also be described as a novel of ideas.
It is not a thriller nor a novel of ideas, though. All the cleverly constructed suspense dwindles into nothing, the exploration of ideas clashes with the devices required by a thriller, the characters are hardly credible, the coincidences are simply too many.
I liked Pat Barker's first novels very much, also her REGENERATION trilogy. This novel, however, was disappointing, as was her previous one. Only 2,5 ⭐.
August 6, 2016
I felt this book was mis-described in the blurb. It's a very good read, but it doesn't quite do the things claimed for it; it does other great things instead. Particularly interesting is the exploration of how war is represented, particularly in photographic art. This widens out, as one of the characters is a foreign correspondent and one is a sculptor, so that some general ideas about the hows and whys of art are also touched on. There is also a more uncomfortable thread about crime and the possibility of rehabilitation, and a range of more domestic issues also pop up - parenting, the value of different types of work, marital failure. All this is played out amongst a set of characters who feel, when you list them like this, a bit like the cast of a Miss Marple drama - the village vicar, the vicar's admirer, the vicar's nubile daughter, the doctor etc. I really enjoyed it, especially the narrative voice, which manages to be very authentic even while shifting between several close to third-person perspectives.
November 24, 2017
So I originally read this about 10 years ago for my undergrad, and they're trotting it out again for my postgrad and... holy moly, how perverted is this book?! We've done some work on the male gaze recently and maybe I've become overly sensitive, but almost every page was a comment on a woman's breasts, lips or bum. As if it was just a regular way of talking. As if that's how all men perceive women. Maybe it is, but it seems presumptuous of a woman to adopt this as her mode of speaking as a man.
I'm not saying it's a bad book, per se, but it doesn't really get anywhere other than people looking at people and making assumptions. And a neat vague love story, and a second act moment of pure weirdness which is never resolved and a third act random moment of violence which seems to serve just to make a woman weak.
Truly a strange read.
I'm not saying it's a bad book, per se, but it doesn't really get anywhere other than people looking at people and making assumptions. And a neat vague love story, and a second act moment of pure weirdness which is never resolved and a third act random moment of violence which seems to serve just to make a woman weak.
Truly a strange read.
April 28, 2023
The book ends with a man and a woman separated by 19 or 20 years of age, acknowledging their love for each other. And the man recollecting the death of his fellow journalist and war correspondent in a war zone.
This book has the delightful feel of the great British England added onto by the reading of a person with a British accent. The writing is superb with insights about relationships as well as mysteries about those same relationships. While there may be nothing perfect in this world, there is plenty to appreciate.
I found the many insights in the book to be fascinating and enthralling uses of the written word. There are views of artistic achievement in Arenas, not particularly commonly well known to us. There is the work of the sculptor, and the work of the photographer, and the artistic talent of both. And all of this is done with the artistic talent of the writer.
This book has the delightful feel of the great British England added onto by the reading of a person with a British accent. The writing is superb with insights about relationships as well as mysteries about those same relationships. While there may be nothing perfect in this world, there is plenty to appreciate.
I found the many insights in the book to be fascinating and enthralling uses of the written word. There are views of artistic achievement in Arenas, not particularly commonly well known to us. There is the work of the sculptor, and the work of the photographer, and the artistic talent of both. And all of this is done with the artistic talent of the writer.
February 20, 2014
My first of Pat Barker, Double Vision is a novel that holds Within its pages - war, crime, murder, rape, love, hate, sex, artistry, creativity, duplicity, anger, tenderness, inspiration , and lot more.
The narration style is good. the author switches narrators with such ease that you'd not even notice the change . but somehow the book left me unsatisfied, sort of wanting for more. There was an absence of resolution for the characters issues, and the characters themselves. Stephan will always remember what he saw that night, Kate will continue to mourn Ben’s death, and Justine was left with her feelings for Peter. Justine and Stephan get into a relationship to get over their past relationships, but that isn't specified. At the book's end , Kate is still trying to get on with her life post Ben's death, Stephan's sis in law is working to save her marriage .... and a list of unresolved issues of all the characters.
If you are looking for satisfaction this isn't a book to pick.
The narration style is good. the author switches narrators with such ease that you'd not even notice the change . but somehow the book left me unsatisfied, sort of wanting for more. There was an absence of resolution for the characters issues, and the characters themselves. Stephan will always remember what he saw that night, Kate will continue to mourn Ben’s death, and Justine was left with her feelings for Peter. Justine and Stephan get into a relationship to get over their past relationships, but that isn't specified. At the book's end , Kate is still trying to get on with her life post Ben's death, Stephan's sis in law is working to save her marriage .... and a list of unresolved issues of all the characters.
If you are looking for satisfaction this isn't a book to pick.
October 24, 2011
I read this book for a class I'm taking, with the requirement to pay particular attention to point of view. And the point of view is interesting. Barker chooses third-person close for two primary characters, switching between them at well chosen places in the narration, and veers off into what seems like omniscience at various points. She does this so smoothly that I had to pause and contemplate how it happened.
The story is good, a post 9-11 trauma set in the English countryside. Unfortunately, the only character with any depth is Stephen, a foreign correspondent with PTSD who has a fascinating resurgence in life after he begins a sexual affair with his brother's nanny, a girl twenty years younger. Yep, that'll do it. Most of the other characters, both major and minor, seem flat and "to type." Tortured atheist artist sculpting Christ figure, confused ineffectual vicar, sexually uninhibited vicar's daughter, et cetera.
Nevertheless, the fun of the book is due to the tension and suspense that Barker creates around a young good-looking convict, freed from prison for a crime the local vicar chooses not to reveal. I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll stop here.
The story is good, a post 9-11 trauma set in the English countryside. Unfortunately, the only character with any depth is Stephen, a foreign correspondent with PTSD who has a fascinating resurgence in life after he begins a sexual affair with his brother's nanny, a girl twenty years younger. Yep, that'll do it. Most of the other characters, both major and minor, seem flat and "to type." Tortured atheist artist sculpting Christ figure, confused ineffectual vicar, sexually uninhibited vicar's daughter, et cetera.
Nevertheless, the fun of the book is due to the tension and suspense that Barker creates around a young good-looking convict, freed from prison for a crime the local vicar chooses not to reveal. I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll stop here.
March 29, 2012
I have really become pedantic about what I like to read. This was just a little too "novel-y" for me. It was described as a psychological thriller and it just only barely fulfilled its promise. Far too much mithering about with high-mindedness and deep, introspective thoughts about war and violence and representation and not enough crime drama. We never know who committed the central crime in the book and we don't seem to give a damn. One of the characters seems very dodgy and suspicious but it never goes anywhere and the little bit we do find out about him is never really explored or explained in a satisfactory manner. Really disappointing book. Don't know if I'll bother to give Barker another chance.
July 5, 2010
There are two main characters in Double Vision: a burned-out war journalist who is grappling with the death of his photographer friend, and the photographer's wife, a sculptor, who is not only dealing with the death of her husband, but also recovering from a bad car accident. Their lives intersect when the journalist returns home to work on a book about his experiences. A romantic relationship does develop, but not between these two characters. It's an absorbing story on the surface level. But it also—as is typical for a Barker novel—explores complex questions about war and violence. This isn't my favorite Barker book, but it's the best book I've read this year.
March 8, 2019
Empieza bien y luego se pierde.
June 8, 2013
Within the first few pages of this book, I knew that I wouldn't be able to recommend 'Double Vision' to any of my male friends, this is a novel geared particularly at a female readership, exploring the complexities of relationships within a small-knit community.
At the heart of it all are two key characters: Stephen and Kate, who are both profoundly affected by the death of Ben, their respective colleague and husband who was killed in Afghanistan. My expectation was that this consequently would play a large part in how the novel panned out, however my feeling was that this event was overshadowed somewhat by their sexual tensions with other characters within the novel, the explicitly sexual Justine, the vicar's 19 year old daughter; and Peter, a mysterious young and tanned gentleman with a secret past.
My feeling was that there wasn't much separating this from any other piece of chick-lit, however this is a very well written story, with vivid imagery and a play on the senses, which any female reader could easily lose themselves in.
I suppose I expected more out of this book, but on the whole, it made for an enjoyable read.
At the heart of it all are two key characters: Stephen and Kate, who are both profoundly affected by the death of Ben, their respective colleague and husband who was killed in Afghanistan. My expectation was that this consequently would play a large part in how the novel panned out, however my feeling was that this event was overshadowed somewhat by their sexual tensions with other characters within the novel, the explicitly sexual Justine, the vicar's 19 year old daughter; and Peter, a mysterious young and tanned gentleman with a secret past.
My feeling was that there wasn't much separating this from any other piece of chick-lit, however this is a very well written story, with vivid imagery and a play on the senses, which any female reader could easily lose themselves in.
I suppose I expected more out of this book, but on the whole, it made for an enjoyable read.
October 12, 2016
Great read. The usual Pat Barker themes of art, love and the traumatic after effect of war - in this case on journalists and those close to them when they return home or indeed when they fail to do so. The story focuses particularly on Kate, the artist/sculptor widow of Ben, a photojournalist who has recently been killed in Afghanistan and also on his friend Stephen, a fellow journalist who first met Ben amongst the horrors of Sarajevo.
My one reservation would be decision of the author to include 9/11 and to have had both Ben and Stephen in New York to witness it. I just can't work out why two war journalists would both be in NY on that day. Bit too much of a coincidence and the novel and its themes would have worked quite happily without it. Maybe knock off half a star, but it still had me hooked from beginning to end.
My one reservation would be decision of the author to include 9/11 and to have had both Ben and Stephen in New York to witness it. I just can't work out why two war journalists would both be in NY on that day. Bit too much of a coincidence and the novel and its themes would have worked quite happily without it. Maybe knock off half a star, but it still had me hooked from beginning to end.
May 26, 2014
I loved Pat Barker's trilogy about WWI soldiers. This book is set in post-9/11 England, shortly after the mad cow scare required the destruction of livestock across the country. I really enjoy her writing style and was starting to feel very involved in the characters when the book ended quite abruptly! Part of the challenge was that I was listening to an MP3 version in my car and had no idea how many "pages" were left, so I was completely taken aback to find that it was over. I'd love to know what happened to the characters and all the unresolved plot points. Perhaps this is the first in another trilogy, I hope so. I'll have to read other reviews and see if anyone else had this reaction. I recommend it but don't be surprised when it's over before your questions are answered.
February 10, 2008
For me the main weakness of this book was the plot. I enjoyed about three quarters of the book, expecting some neat resolutions and things falling into place in the last part - but that never happened.
I feel that Barker starting writing without knowing where she was heading. There were interesting parts that would have made good books in themselves (the sculpter/assistant storyline and the returning war correspondent/Goya thread) but they got such a glancing touch as to fall by the wayside.
Overall I feel let down, and a bit as if I just read an episode of Midsummer Murders without finding out who did it.
I feel that Barker starting writing without knowing where she was heading. There were interesting parts that would have made good books in themselves (the sculpter/assistant storyline and the returning war correspondent/Goya thread) but they got such a glancing touch as to fall by the wayside.
Overall I feel let down, and a bit as if I just read an episode of Midsummer Murders without finding out who did it.
June 17, 2017
This book did nothing for me. Lots of potential and easy to read but left me feeling cold. I couldn't relate to the characters or their feelings. Not memorable and not one of Barker's best.
January 29, 2021
This solidly-constructed, quiet, old-fashioned novel crept up on me, surprising me at the end with an emotional weight I hadn't anticipated. Barker really understands how to find the right balance of plot and character development, keeping things moving forward in a novel peopled with characters that unfurl and reveal themselves as the story deepens. Two characters in particular - a retired war correspondent and a sculptor working on a church commission - dominate the narrative, and between them help articulate Barker's exploration of love and loss and recovery. Barker is wonderful at evoking the mid-winter landscape of northeast England, still reeling from the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease, and the book left me with a thirst to visit Lindisfarne which plays a small, atmospheric role in the novel's final scenes. This isn't the novel of Barker's I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read her (that's reserved for Regeneration), but I'm happy to have read it.
January 4, 2021
3,75 stars. I did, for quite a long time, believe this book would take an entirely different turn. And that just did not happen, which surprised me. I was blindsided by the happening towards the end, but then I suppose when things like that happen, that's how you feel.
I loved the narration, and the pace, and the focalisation on different characters. I loved the meditations on representations of pain, war, suffering, death, violence, the emotions they do or do not induce, and what they mean. The introspective writing, and some of the descriptions of everyday things, were very beautiful to read, because they felt truthful. Some reflections on faith, too, I liked very much. Not up to four stars—I really can't put my finger on why—but almost there.
I loved the narration, and the pace, and the focalisation on different characters. I loved the meditations on representations of pain, war, suffering, death, violence, the emotions they do or do not induce, and what they mean. The introspective writing, and some of the descriptions of everyday things, were very beautiful to read, because they felt truthful. Some reflections on faith, too, I liked very much. Not up to four stars—I really can't put my finger on why—but almost there.
September 17, 2021
Interesting to be reading this on 9/11 as the main characters both have connections to Afghanistan. Kate, a sculptor, whose husband is killed in Afghanistan and his friend, Stephen, a journalist who was covering the war and now suffers from PTSD. As always, Barker, gets inside the heads of the characters and shows the after-effects of violence.
August 11, 2023
I picked up the book from my favorite old book store, because:
1)It was inexpensive. 2) The cover mentioned Pat Barker as a winner of The Booker Prize. Since I’m a sucker for low prices, mention of The Booker meant I was hooked, caught, and skinned.
Now my experience with Booker winners or nominees has been decent/good. At minimum you are assured excellent prose, sometimes an innovative narrative style, unique voice, and in the really good ones, even a good story and plot. Examples that come to mind are “The White Tiger” and “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”
Pat Barker might have written a great novel once, which won the Booker, but Double Vision did its best not to emulate that book. It offered, well, nothing. Competent, but not great prose—think college essays. Characters with less life and personality than my bedroom door. Even my door once in a while makes a loud bang, but here the characters whimpered along with bad marriages, aching necks, strained love affairs, and some domestic quibbles that could be sorted out over a cup of English Tea in our idyllic village setting.
Now there was scope within the story to create conflict, especially with the introduction of a good looking gardener (Lady Chatterley’s Lover anyone) who also has a dark history, which I dare not mention, since that is the ‘one’ Big Secret in the book. Coming back to conflicts, our author apparently hates them, and wants none of her characters to suffer either physically, spiritually, or intellectually, and reserves it for us mere mortals. She and her characters glide through the book, brooding over things and drinking tons of coffee, while doing the brooding. The book should have come with a disclaimer: 'No Characters were harmed during the writing of this novel.' Anyhow our Gardener/Could-have-been-Lady-Chatterley’s Lover faces no real questions or suspicions about his past and present, from The ‘Good Citizens’ of the novel. These good-hearted people simply decide to do the back-biting behind his back.
The hero of our story is a jaded war correspondent (they’re always jaded aren’t they?) returned from Afghanistan—who barely mentions Afghanistan—and is exorcising his memories of war by writing a book about war. (Is there some psychological trick I’m unaware of: focusing on the thing you’re running from will help you forget it?) Oh and he’s also humping a teenager. Or is it the other way around, since he’s doing more humping than actual writing.
Now I have nothing again humping. Au contraire. But we are talking about a forty year old man, and this did present our author an opportunity to create some problems for our hero. At least someone in the village telling him, “Dude, give us a break. She’s old enough to be your daughter.” But The Good Citizens decide: nope, we’re not meddling in the affairs of consenting adults. In fact we are so Good, so understanding, so reasonable, totally unlike people in the real world, that we will give them space, opportunity, even our beds and homes to carry on with the humping. Humping never hurt anyone. Plus The Daily Mail said it’s good for your skin.
What else is happening, but not really, since all of these are just fillers with no real effect on the story at hand; these could have been omitted and you'd still have the same novel. A car accident, a child with Asperger's, a burglary, some mention of the Bosnian War—whatever happened to Afghanistan? Was it used in the blurb to increase sales? Before someone comes at me, Bosnia was significant. I was being mean, after all everyone else in the novel isn't. The Universe needed to be brought back into balance.
And yes there is also a under-construction sculpture in the Story. Did it get completed or not? Who cares? I swear if someone had taken a hammer to it, shattered it into a million heart-shaped pieces, our artistic character would have sighed a long sigh, called her friend, who she doesn’t even like, to give her a back massage, wondered if the world deserved her art, or any art for that matter, and without answering the question would have grumpily started all over again, of course after taking her cup of coffee, while reminiscing what her dead husband would have said to her.
Lesson: Don’t be fooled by book covers mentioning prizes won by other books by the same author. Tough ask. But we can do it. Right. Right?
Rating: 1 star.
1)It was inexpensive. 2) The cover mentioned Pat Barker as a winner of The Booker Prize. Since I’m a sucker for low prices, mention of The Booker meant I was hooked, caught, and skinned.
Now my experience with Booker winners or nominees has been decent/good. At minimum you are assured excellent prose, sometimes an innovative narrative style, unique voice, and in the really good ones, even a good story and plot. Examples that come to mind are “The White Tiger” and “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”
Pat Barker might have written a great novel once, which won the Booker, but Double Vision did its best not to emulate that book. It offered, well, nothing. Competent, but not great prose—think college essays. Characters with less life and personality than my bedroom door. Even my door once in a while makes a loud bang, but here the characters whimpered along with bad marriages, aching necks, strained love affairs, and some domestic quibbles that could be sorted out over a cup of English Tea in our idyllic village setting.
Now there was scope within the story to create conflict, especially with the introduction of a good looking gardener (Lady Chatterley’s Lover anyone) who also has a dark history, which I dare not mention, since that is the ‘one’ Big Secret in the book. Coming back to conflicts, our author apparently hates them, and wants none of her characters to suffer either physically, spiritually, or intellectually, and reserves it for us mere mortals. She and her characters glide through the book, brooding over things and drinking tons of coffee, while doing the brooding. The book should have come with a disclaimer: 'No Characters were harmed during the writing of this novel.' Anyhow our Gardener/Could-have-been-Lady-Chatterley’s Lover faces no real questions or suspicions about his past and present, from The ‘Good Citizens’ of the novel. These good-hearted people simply decide to do the back-biting behind his back.
The hero of our story is a jaded war correspondent (they’re always jaded aren’t they?) returned from Afghanistan—who barely mentions Afghanistan—and is exorcising his memories of war by writing a book about war. (Is there some psychological trick I’m unaware of: focusing on the thing you’re running from will help you forget it?) Oh and he’s also humping a teenager. Or is it the other way around, since he’s doing more humping than actual writing.
Now I have nothing again humping. Au contraire. But we are talking about a forty year old man, and this did present our author an opportunity to create some problems for our hero. At least someone in the village telling him, “Dude, give us a break. She’s old enough to be your daughter.” But The Good Citizens decide: nope, we’re not meddling in the affairs of consenting adults. In fact we are so Good, so understanding, so reasonable, totally unlike people in the real world, that we will give them space, opportunity, even our beds and homes to carry on with the humping. Humping never hurt anyone. Plus The Daily Mail said it’s good for your skin.
What else is happening, but not really, since all of these are just fillers with no real effect on the story at hand; these could have been omitted and you'd still have the same novel. A car accident, a child with Asperger's, a burglary, some mention of the Bosnian War—whatever happened to Afghanistan? Was it used in the blurb to increase sales? Before someone comes at me, Bosnia was significant. I was being mean, after all everyone else in the novel isn't. The Universe needed to be brought back into balance.
And yes there is also a under-construction sculpture in the Story. Did it get completed or not? Who cares? I swear if someone had taken a hammer to it, shattered it into a million heart-shaped pieces, our artistic character would have sighed a long sigh, called her friend, who she doesn’t even like, to give her a back massage, wondered if the world deserved her art, or any art for that matter, and without answering the question would have grumpily started all over again, of course after taking her cup of coffee, while reminiscing what her dead husband would have said to her.
Lesson: Don’t be fooled by book covers mentioning prizes won by other books by the same author. Tough ask. But we can do it. Right. Right?
Rating: 1 star.
October 1, 2020
Double Vision by Pat Barker is a novel that defies description. Within its pages there is war, crime, murder, rape, love, hate, sex, artistry, creativity, duplicity, anger, tenderness, inspiration: a dictionary might have enough words to list its subtleties. What it has aplenty is feeling and emotion, an ability to convey its characters' innermost thoughts in an almost tactile manner, as if sculpting them for a hand to explore their surface.
At times, Pat Barker’s characters surprise even themselves. At the heart of the book is a series of relationships between four individuals – Justine, Ben, Kate and Stephen. The two men used to work together as a team. They have covered wars and conflict throughout the world.
Stephen was the writer, Ben the photographer, who would always insist on getting that one last shot, the one that the eyeless onlooker would miss, the one whose poetry would convey the true horror, the one whose horror, perhaps, might stir conscience. But one day, an Afghanistan, he pursued his perfectionist brief one shot too far and, over-exposed, another’s eagle eye picked him out. The loss felt by Stephen will never be adequately described, especially by himself. His partner’s death puts him in limbo and he retires to write. Ben’s sculptor wife, Kate, is left both numb and destroyed by her loss, a loss which becomes everything and nothing.
A commission to create a giant Christ for a prime site in a churchyard is both pressing and unexpectedly therapeutic. She wants him naked. He must be clad. But then an accident damages her arms and she must seek help from a gardener, Peter, who is clearly much more than a pruner of roses. Exactly what Peter might be adds a sense of tangible mystery to parts of the book, but these serve only to highlight the fact that he is perhaps the only one of the characters with a recorded and therefore accessible past.
Justine is the vicar’s daughter. At nineteen she was ready to go to university, but illness disrupted her plans. Being ditched by a boyfriend did not help. And so academe was deferred by an enforced gap year. She ‘does’ for Stephen’s brother and his wife, specialising in caring for a difficult, demanding child. When Stephen lodges with the family, but in a separate dwelling a hundred yards from the house, he and Justine meet. He is old enough to be her father. So what? Their relationship develops through the book, their frequent sexual encounters both rich and surprising.
Pat Barker’s ability to tease out emotional reaction, to crystallise it but at the same time to keep it fluid makes the story of Stephen and Justine exciting, exhilarating, contradictory, impossible and accepted in one. Whatever people’s ages, whatever their motives, whatever the consequences, either real or imagined, people still need love, can sense its promise, can invite it, even when they know it could hurt, humiliate, destroy.
Double Vision is thus a complex story of how a group of friends and acquaintances interact with history, reality, their hopes and fears in a small community in the north-east of England. There is a strong sense of place, a keen eye for detail in a rural landscape that is at least partly hostile. Not that other landscapes are not hostile. Memories of war and its consequences haunt some of the characters. Failed relationships taunt others. Unrealised dreams snag away at the fraying edges of what might have been. Death turns lives upside down, lives that go on to new ecstasies of joy, creativity or even plunder.
At the end of the book you know these people intimately and intuitively. But your knowledge and understanding of people is like a photograph. It is valid only for the instant in which it was taken. As memory, it solidifies an ever changing reality into an illusion of permanence, like a sculpture captures a moment of movement, a moment that never happened. Life goes on. This is a beautiful book.
At times, Pat Barker’s characters surprise even themselves. At the heart of the book is a series of relationships between four individuals – Justine, Ben, Kate and Stephen. The two men used to work together as a team. They have covered wars and conflict throughout the world.
Stephen was the writer, Ben the photographer, who would always insist on getting that one last shot, the one that the eyeless onlooker would miss, the one whose poetry would convey the true horror, the one whose horror, perhaps, might stir conscience. But one day, an Afghanistan, he pursued his perfectionist brief one shot too far and, over-exposed, another’s eagle eye picked him out. The loss felt by Stephen will never be adequately described, especially by himself. His partner’s death puts him in limbo and he retires to write. Ben’s sculptor wife, Kate, is left both numb and destroyed by her loss, a loss which becomes everything and nothing.
A commission to create a giant Christ for a prime site in a churchyard is both pressing and unexpectedly therapeutic. She wants him naked. He must be clad. But then an accident damages her arms and she must seek help from a gardener, Peter, who is clearly much more than a pruner of roses. Exactly what Peter might be adds a sense of tangible mystery to parts of the book, but these serve only to highlight the fact that he is perhaps the only one of the characters with a recorded and therefore accessible past.
Justine is the vicar’s daughter. At nineteen she was ready to go to university, but illness disrupted her plans. Being ditched by a boyfriend did not help. And so academe was deferred by an enforced gap year. She ‘does’ for Stephen’s brother and his wife, specialising in caring for a difficult, demanding child. When Stephen lodges with the family, but in a separate dwelling a hundred yards from the house, he and Justine meet. He is old enough to be her father. So what? Their relationship develops through the book, their frequent sexual encounters both rich and surprising.
Pat Barker’s ability to tease out emotional reaction, to crystallise it but at the same time to keep it fluid makes the story of Stephen and Justine exciting, exhilarating, contradictory, impossible and accepted in one. Whatever people’s ages, whatever their motives, whatever the consequences, either real or imagined, people still need love, can sense its promise, can invite it, even when they know it could hurt, humiliate, destroy.
Double Vision is thus a complex story of how a group of friends and acquaintances interact with history, reality, their hopes and fears in a small community in the north-east of England. There is a strong sense of place, a keen eye for detail in a rural landscape that is at least partly hostile. Not that other landscapes are not hostile. Memories of war and its consequences haunt some of the characters. Failed relationships taunt others. Unrealised dreams snag away at the fraying edges of what might have been. Death turns lives upside down, lives that go on to new ecstasies of joy, creativity or even plunder.
At the end of the book you know these people intimately and intuitively. But your knowledge and understanding of people is like a photograph. It is valid only for the instant in which it was taken. As memory, it solidifies an ever changing reality into an illusion of permanence, like a sculpture captures a moment of movement, a moment that never happened. Life goes on. This is a beautiful book.
September 3, 2017
I was a bit bemused by the ending of this novel. I did enjoy the vivid imagery used. The characters though were a bit unbelievable. Justine the young attractive vicars daughter and the 20 year older lover. Kate the sculptor was good coming to terms with her husbands death. There was an undertone of something sinister going to happen which did but not what I expected.
My favorite bit was the description of the Farnes and the terns dive bombing. Something I myself have experienced. All in all a reasonable read and I will definitely try to read a few more of her novels.
My favorite bit was the description of the Farnes and the terns dive bombing. Something I myself have experienced. All in all a reasonable read and I will definitely try to read a few more of her novels.
October 4, 2021
This was a complete waste of my time. Once again, there was potential but the book went nowhere. I didn’t like any of the characters. It wasn’t gripping at all. I found myself skimming pages, waiting for something to happen and nothing did. Maybe this author just isn’t for me because this is not the first book of hers where I have felt this. There’s potential and then nothing. They seem to need a stronger editor than what they’ve had.
April 19, 2021
Found got lost with the characters & who was who and why an adult male was having sex with a girl just out of school. No level of the school she graduated from was given. I loved The Ghost Road so was eager to find another book by the author. No real character definition was given except for two semi main characters.
January 17, 2010
Disappointing. Very interesting characters but as other reviewers have said all dressed up and nowhere to go. I think the fly leaf is completely misleading, really raised expectations that were completely unfulfilled.
May 13, 2020
Throughout, the book was somewhat interesting and engaging, although not particularly so. It might have gotten a higher rating had the ending been better, but basically every single issue is left unresolved. So, uh, what was the point?
July 7, 2021
Really enjoyed this book; it's very atmospheric and beautifully written. I've read quite a few of the historical Pat Barker novels, but this is set more recently and was generally excellent, with well drawn characters and great tension mounting through the book.
July 22, 2009
not impressed with the ending. It felt very abrupt to me and I didn't feel like the loose ends of various stories got tied up...
December 14, 2018
Not as thought provoking as I thought. There were signs of certain things happening but they never did.
August 26, 2023
Artist Kate Frobisher, whose war photographer husband, Ben, was not long ago shot in Afghanistan, is driving home one winter’s night when her car skids on black ice and comes off the road. Her injuries mean she will need help to complete the commission of a sculpture of Jesus for the local church. The vicar suggests Peter Wingrave, a handyman currently unemployed. Meanwhile foreign correspondent Stephen Sharkey, Ben’s colleague, has split up with his wife and comes to live in a cottage owned by his brother in the same village.
The set-up reminded me a bit of J L Carr’s A Month in the Country, which featured an incomer haunted by war experiences (in his case The Great War) uncovering a mural in a rural church. Barker’s book is longer, though, and a trifle more complicated.
Wingrave turns out to have a peculiar interest in the sculpture and a past which includes something dark plus a relationship with the vicar’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Justine. Stephen and Justine, who is having a pre-University gap year enforced by illness and looks after his autistic nephew when the parents are at work, soon start seeing each other despite their age difference.
Stephen is haunted by his memories - especially that of a dead woman in Sarajevo yet he is intent on writing a book about them using Ben’s photographs as illustrations. He reflects on the responsibility of being a witness, “There’s always this tension between wanting to show the truth, and yet being sceptical about what the effects of showing it are going to be,” a tension which the artist Goya also felt. Goya, he knows, “visited circuses, fiestas, fairs, freak shows, street markets, acrobatic displays, lunatic asylums, bear fights, public executions, any spectacle strong enough to still the shouting of the demons in his ears.”
The background of the aftermath of the foot and mouth epidemic is well drawn but despite seeming foreshadowings like that, events do not take the course they would normally imply. Barker handles her characters well enough, these people feel individual (even if the affair between Stephen and Justine is problematic. Is taking up with a much younger woman really a suitable salve for a troubled mind?) The connections between the lives of the protagonists of the two main strands, Kate and Stephen, are not really present, though. Only Wingrave provides any overlap between them, and that is tangential - not to mention a little forced what with his being Justine’s former lover.
The set-up reminded me a bit of J L Carr’s A Month in the Country, which featured an incomer haunted by war experiences (in his case The Great War) uncovering a mural in a rural church. Barker’s book is longer, though, and a trifle more complicated.
Wingrave turns out to have a peculiar interest in the sculpture and a past which includes something dark plus a relationship with the vicar’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Justine. Stephen and Justine, who is having a pre-University gap year enforced by illness and looks after his autistic nephew when the parents are at work, soon start seeing each other despite their age difference.
Stephen is haunted by his memories - especially that of a dead woman in Sarajevo yet he is intent on writing a book about them using Ben’s photographs as illustrations. He reflects on the responsibility of being a witness, “There’s always this tension between wanting to show the truth, and yet being sceptical about what the effects of showing it are going to be,” a tension which the artist Goya also felt. Goya, he knows, “visited circuses, fiestas, fairs, freak shows, street markets, acrobatic displays, lunatic asylums, bear fights, public executions, any spectacle strong enough to still the shouting of the demons in his ears.”
The background of the aftermath of the foot and mouth epidemic is well drawn but despite seeming foreshadowings like that, events do not take the course they would normally imply. Barker handles her characters well enough, these people feel individual (even if the affair between Stephen and Justine is problematic. Is taking up with a much younger woman really a suitable salve for a troubled mind?) The connections between the lives of the protagonists of the two main strands, Kate and Stephen, are not really present, though. Only Wingrave provides any overlap between them, and that is tangential - not to mention a little forced what with his being Justine’s former lover.
August 7, 2021
This novel is unsettling on two different levels. It’s compelling and you really want to know what happens next in this corner of rural Northumberland, but at the same time you keep noticing as you whip through, that the book is a little bit rubbish. The cliched setting - a farmhouse at the edge of a dark forest which the inhabitant loves but which is lonely and creepy - the number of times Barker describes the interior of someone’s mouth (dry-mouthed; gritty mouthed; trying to work up some saliva in her dry mouth - I started to look out for the mouth reference when another description came along - and there it always was). And a key relationship between a 19 year old girl and a 40 year old man never comes across as anything but exploitative and off, despite Barker’s best endeavours to imply that the girl is mature and experienced (she isn’t either of those things, has had only one previous sexual relationship which ended badly, and why is Barker obsessed by the size of the young woman’s breasts?) Unsatisfying, not because it refuses to tie up every loose end in a clever, literary way, but because it fails to tie up some serious plot points in a flawed and disappointing way. Who was the first person to arrive on the scene of the accident? If it’s who we’re led to believe it probably was, what was all that about? Why is a genuinely surprising revelation about the vicar’s life at the very end of the novel just left hanging? How likely is it that a war reporter employed by national newspapers would have family living in the very same part of rural Northumberland that his late friend and nationally-known war photographer’s widow does? Not very, let’s be honest. An odd and ultimately frustrating novel.
March 10, 2025
2.5/5 stars
Barkers novel, Double Vision, successfully engenders an atmosphere of darkness and gritty violence, which serves as a counterpoint to its rural setting. For the greater part of the books length, there is an unsettling sense of foreboding. The problem is that by the novels end, this sense is never fully satisfied. The book swings from one theme to the next, be it violence during the Bosnian conflict, the justice system and whether rehabilitation really is grounds for a 'second chance', grief and the loss of one's spouse or partner, family and the role of parenting in ensuring a secure and safe family unit, or societal norms concerning relationships.
The difficulty is that none of these are explored with sufficient depth to leave the reader feeling satisfied. If, on the other hand, Barkers intention was to write a straight up, plot-driven novel, the plot points were never satisfactorily concluded.
All of this just leads to an 'okay' novel, with little to distinguish it, other than Barkers trademark prowess at crafting well-rounded characters.
Barkers novel, Double Vision, successfully engenders an atmosphere of darkness and gritty violence, which serves as a counterpoint to its rural setting. For the greater part of the books length, there is an unsettling sense of foreboding. The problem is that by the novels end, this sense is never fully satisfied. The book swings from one theme to the next, be it violence during the Bosnian conflict, the justice system and whether rehabilitation really is grounds for a 'second chance', grief and the loss of one's spouse or partner, family and the role of parenting in ensuring a secure and safe family unit, or societal norms concerning relationships.
The difficulty is that none of these are explored with sufficient depth to leave the reader feeling satisfied. If, on the other hand, Barkers intention was to write a straight up, plot-driven novel, the plot points were never satisfactorily concluded.
All of this just leads to an 'okay' novel, with little to distinguish it, other than Barkers trademark prowess at crafting well-rounded characters.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews