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They were walking along the river path, away from the city, and as far as they knew they were alone. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, disturbing book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Border Crossing (Paperback)
This is the only one of Pat Barker's modern day books that I've really loved - not quite as much as the regeneration trilogy, but almost. One of her great talents is to draw characters who are wholly sympathetic without being wholly, or perhaps even slightly, admirable. Barker manipulates the reader's opinion of Danny, the child-murderer, cleverly, so that he is experienced as distressed and suicidal adult, abused child, cold and manipulative teenager. We experience Danny in the same way many of the book's characters do; knowing that he is an expert at drawing people in and winning their sympathy, yet being drawn in anyway. This keeps you off-balance, at one moment frightened for Danny and at the next frightened of him. The narrative has a wonderful simplicity and lightness of touch, so that the potentially lurid subject matter comes across as low-key and quietly disturbing. I read it in a couple of hours, and have been rereading parts of it ever since. Highly recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant study of a child who murdered,
By
This review is from: Border Crossing (Paperback)
If you’ve ever watched The Simpsons and seen a joke unfold in front of you that is so brilliant in its both its conception and delivery, but not actually laughed out loud, instead stared at the TV and appreciated the technical perfection, your mind saying "That is the funniest thing I have ever seen", then I think you will understand a little the emotional response of reading Pat Barker’s extraordinary 'Border Crossing'.Which is not to say Barker’s novel is a comedy. Far from it. It is a tight, discomforting, sometimes thrilling novel that investigates an important idea that is so often discussed in newspapers, though rarely with the degree of cool intelligence that Barker shows here. If you like Ian McKewan, I imagine you will also like Barker. She writes concisely, never wasting an idea, a thought, a plot shift, or a nuance in the telling of this inquisitively psychological novel. Danny is a young man who was convicted of murder as a child. He is now free, living under an different name, trying to find a way to exist in a world that would see him lynched, if the images in newspapers like the 'Mail' told the full story. Tom Seymour is the psychologist who interviewed Danny at the time of the murder and crucially gave the evidence that saw him convicted under the disturbing categorisation of having full cognisance of what he was doing. Though not a teenager, Danny was well aware that killing was wrong, Seymour posits, and this is something that Danny has had to come to terms with while locked away. The story begins with Seymour walking by a river in the winter and spotting a young man fall in. This young man, who he dives in to rescue, turns out to be Danny, and the meeting precipitates a renewal of their relationship. It would be a shame to give away what happens from then on. The taut plot perfectly marries with Barker’s psychological and philosophical investigation into what society thinks of children such as Danny. It raises searching questions and drags your mind kicking and screaming into territory it would most often prefer to avoid. And this makes it a brilliant book. Though perhaps not the easiest book to enjoy. In short, almost terse prose, such an enormous subject is treated with chilling intelligence. Barker has written a thriller, but one that does so much more than expected. It is a novel of ideas, and difficult ideas at that. The only hesitation I have in recommending 'Border Crossing', is that it leaves the reader coated with a sickening sensation. Whether it is fear brought about by the unfolding dread of the story, or whether it is the reader’s own sense of pusillanimous intellectual rigour when addressing such dark concerns, is a question I will have to leave up to you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing study of human psychology,
By
This review is from: Border Crossing (Paperback)
To what extent can a child can be held responsible for their actions? Can they change? Do they deserve a second chance?
Tom, a psychologist encounters Danny, who was his patient as a child and at whose trial he gave evidence. Although Danny has served his time, he is haunted by the past and by a crime he still hasn't come to terms with committing. Tom has his own problems, and Danny fills a void as his marriage comes to an end. However whilst wanting to help, Tom's concerned that Danny may be manipulating him as he may have manipulated others in his life. The events that make Danny feel hunted were conveyed well, showing how almost impossible it is to make a new start in our society. I also felt Tom's empathy with Danny was very realistic and honest. He recalls an event from his own childhood that he feels would have ended differently if it weren't for the intervention of an adult. Sometimes we're quick to condemn and forget what being a child was like, how sometimes children can get into situations they don't know how to get out of. Rather than giving us all the answers in neat little story we're encouraged to come to our own conclusions which made for a more interesting read.
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