Border Crossing by Pat Barker
I was eager to read Border Crossing after having read Barker’s Regeneration trilogy about Siegfried Sassoon (who suffered from shell-shock), his psychologist Rivers (who becomes something of a father figure for the soldiers) and other soldiers in World War One. Border Crossing follows a psychologist who specialises in minors who commit atrocious crimes. He becomes reacquainted with a man he first met as a 10-year old and who has just finished serving a sentence for a murder he committed at that age. The young man wants the psychologist to help him work out why he committed his crime. Both texts explore psychologist/patient relationships, paying particular attention to the way that the psychologist’s weaknesses also become apparent through the process. Barker (female) creates believable male voices and explores the role that memory and the sharing of memories plays in shaping what we believe about ourselves and others. However, this text lacks the poetic style of the Regeneration texts, and, while it is engaging and interesting, I felt it ended weakly.
