Critical perspectives on Pat Barker

Critical Perspectives on Pat Barker brings together an international roster of scholars who pay detailed attention to the work and career of this prizewinning British writer, providing critical insight into each of her nine novels, from Union Street (1982) through the Regeneration trilogy (1991-95) to Double Vision (2003). The eighteen essays in the volume are organized into five sections: ""Writing Working-Class Women,"" ""Dialogue under Pressure,"" ""Men at War,"" ""The Talking Cure,"" and ""Regenerating the Wasteland."" Taken individually, each of the essays yields a variety of insights into Barker's fictions; taken as a whole, the collection provides a fresh and timely overview of Barker's oeuvre and her creative exploration of society. The volume probes Barker's keenly historicized and yet topical preoccupations: the social and psychological ramifications of planned violence in war and random violence in British villages and cities, and the comforts and tensions in relationships, whether between men in war, women in postindustrial cities, or men and women in sex and marriage. The volume also dissects Barker's unflinching gaze on class, sex, murder, and psychosis, and her provocative and emotionally moving images. It includes an interview with the novelist, incorporates her observations on writing her most recent novel, Double Vision, in the aftermath of wars in Bosnia and Iraq, and explores the film adaptation of Regeneration. The volume also presents Sarah Daniels's dramatic adaptation of Barker's novel Blow Your House Down, which has been staged but has not previously appeared in print.