Pat Barker is an English writer, who won the Booker Prize for her book "The Ghost Road" in 1995. I was actually looking for that book, but they only had some of her other books, including this one- Border Crossing (written after the Booker Prize success, in 2001).
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It's simply told, focusing on the two protagonists - a teenager who was committed for murder as a child, and the psychologist who enabled him to be trialled in an adult's court. And as the tale is told, she delicately weaves in insights into a juvenile offender's psyche, constructing a picture of a child with a sad background leading a sad life. In the end, I felt that I should feel disgust at this child and what he'd done, yet I felt pity for him too, for the life he's had so far. I guess once you get to know a person's history, it's hard to hate that person, and that's what Pat Barker has done.
I'm a bit disappointed that the suggestion that the child murderer had sought out the psychologist to take revenge for the part the psychologist played in his sentencing didn't get resolved properly, but that's a small thing. This is a subtle book, good for reading at face-value, or for delving deeper into the psychological part and the imagery.
If this book was good, I'm looking forward to her Booker Prize-winning one!
Rating: ****out of 5
2 comments:
Thanks for the review. I bought this book based on a review I read on a library web site. Currently it's sitting somewhere in mountTBR. It's good to hear another endorsment. I'll have to dig it out give it a go sooner.
please do! and thanks for reading my blog :)
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