Border Crossing - Pat Barker

...readers' perceptions of life.
Border Crossing is such a challenging read, on a theme that is truly apt to today’s social problems, that of children who commit crimes.

The storyline.
Tom Seymour, a child physchologist, has already got more problems than he can cope with, a failing marriage, where he sees his wife only at weekends, his failure to get Lauren, his wife to conceive a child and an ongoing three-year research ...
...well. He has crossed the border into Danny’s life. Is he too being manipulated?. Was the suicide really planned by Danny?. These questions and more fill his head.
His one true sounding board is Martha, who seems to be the only person that has a deeper insight into Danny’s character. However, she is due to go to a wedding and cannot call it off.
This leaves Tom alone with Danny, who is about to tell Tom of the day of the murder. The ... more

My younger brother Duncan, a history professor, introduced me to the works of Pat Barker, he reads fictional history for enjoyment and shares his favourite authors with me.
I first read one of her earlier works over a year ago and now have read four books by this author.
Pat Barker was born in Thornaby-on-Tees on 8th May 1943.Educated at the London school of Economics; she has been a teacher of History and Politics.
Best known for her “Regeneration Series”, which won two Booker prizes, a trilogy of the 1st World War, her earlier works threatened to type-cast her as a writer of Feminist novels.
Inspired by the stories of her grandmother and her mother’s struggle to survive in Industrial Britain, her earlier novels have been to some extent, overlooked.
Following the success of Regeneration, she is now acclaimed as Britain’s foremost author of female novelists, awarded a CBE in the 2000 New Years honours list.
Her novels to date stand at ten, with more to be published.
Her acute observation, her narrative prose and a determination to write on topics that other authors would shy away from, make each of her novels a joy to read, while challenging a readers' perceptions of life.
Border Crossing is such a challenging read, on a theme that is truly apt to today’s social problems, that of children who commit crimes.

The storyline.
Tom Seymour, a child physchologist, has already got more problems than he can cope with, a failing marriage, where he sees his wife only at weekends, his failure to get Lauren, his wife to conceive a child and an ongoing three-year research project, which takes up a lot of his time.
Fate, however, has more in store for him.
Morosely strolling along the riverside, he sees what appears to be a suicide attempt by a young man who throws himself into the murky waters, whilst first stripping naked and taking an overdose of pills.
Tom saves him from drowning and leaves the scene as soon as the young man is in an ambulence. The following day, he finds he has left his jacket draped over the boy and visits him in hospital.
Here he discovers that the boy called Ian is really Danny, a boy he last encountered at the age of ten, when Tom was called in to assess Danny’s capability to stand trial for the murder of an old lady. His assessment indirectly, along with forensic evidence, convicts the boy to life imprisonment, yet here he is, thirteen years later, free and given a new identity. Danny is having trouble adapting to life and reluctantly, Tom agrees to see him on an informal basis, clearing it first with Martha, Danny’s Probation Officer, who is also a friend and colleague of Tom.

What follows is a journey into the past for both Tom and Danny. In a series of sessions, Danny reveals his life from the time he was in remand, to his transfer to a secure unit called Long Garth, a home and school for young offenders. Here he spends seven years of his sentence, followed by a spell in a top security prison, where he tells Tom he was raped.
On release from prison, studying English at a University, he is seemingly unable to shake his past off. Yet Tom is suspicious of Danny’s motives. Was it really a coincidence that they have met in such a way?
Danny is a difficult character, he is obviously very intelligent, but “apes” other peoples accents and mannerisms. The feeling that Danny is trying to manipulate him, at times, troubles Tom, he has to be constantly on guard with him.
At times, he appears to be sincere, but contradicts himself frequently. At Long Garth, Danny says he was treated the same as all the other boys and respected the Principal, who run the unit under military lines. Something Danny respects, as his father, an ex-army soldier, beat him often, a concept that Danny seems to condone.

In another session, Danny tells Tom that he was very found of a teacher called Angus, who tried to get him to open up his past through writing things down. At first he speaks of Angus as being a wonderful teacher who eventually becomes a lover. Then he later contradicts himself again, as he got Angus dismissed by saying that he abused him.
The only way that Tom can find out the truth is by visiting both the institution and the writing centre that Angus is in charge of.

Running through the main story, is the background of Tom’s life, both past and present. An incident in Tom’s childhood leads him to revaluate his own concepts of good and evil. At heart, he always felt he had let Danny down, by allowing him to be put on trial, yet even at ten, Danny knew that dead meant that person would not come back, he understood wrong from right, a key element in deciding if he was not suffering from a mental illness.
Lauren asks Tom for a divorce and later moves her belongings out of the house, leaving Tom very vulnerable.

Tom’s trip to Long Garth is another puzzle, Mr Greene; the Principal is a bossy domineering character, who tells Tom that he showed no favouritism to any boy in his care. Angus was dismissed as he had tried to abuse Danny.
Mrs Greene tells a different tale, Danny was allowed too much freedom and many of the rules were bent for him. Asked about Angus, she concedes it was possible that he and Danny could have been lovers. She tells Tom where to find him, sending Tom on another journey to the heart of Yorkshire.

Here, on an overnight stay, Tom spends a bizarre night in the company of Angus, his current lover and the students who make up the weekend group.
When he eventually has time to talk to Angus, he discovers another side to the story, Angus had loved Danny, but no physical contact have ever been made by either of them, Danny had manipulated him too. Still, he gives Tom his private telephone number if Danny wants to contact him.

Tom arrives home to find Danny waiting for him, while Lauren is moving her furniture out. The situation is awkward and he gets rid of Danny, by asking him to visit his home later.
Now, Tom is breaking the rules as well. He has crossed the border into Danny’s life. Is he too being manipulated?. Was the suicide really planned by Danny?. These questions and more fill his head.
His one true sounding board is Martha, who seems to be the only person that has a deeper insight into Danny’s character. However, she is due to go to a wedding and cannot call it off.
This leaves Tom alone with Danny, who is about to tell Tom of the day of the murder. The tale is harrowing for both of them and they are left exhausted. This appears to be the end of the sessions; Danny has finally dropped his guard down.

This should surely be the end of the story, but there are more surprises in store for the reader.
Danny’s cover is about to be blown apart, as a piece of sensational news leads the press to Tom’s house, where Danny has returned to for one night of safety, before Martha can arrive back to rescue him and to give Danny a new identity.

What will happen to them both now? Can Danny truly disappear again and can Tom ever
recross the border to his own life?
This is for you, the reader to discover for yourselves.

Summary

Although the topic may deter the reader, this is a book that needs to be read. I questioned myself, “was I up to the task”. Knowing the author as a novelist of integrity, I could not turn away from it. I read the book in one sitting, not too great a feat at 216 pages long. If the story line seems sparse or disjointed, this is because it is something the readers need to discover for themselves. The way it appears to me may be completely different from another’s point of view.
Both Tom and Danny are very powerful characters and dominate the book, although Barker gives some interesting cameo sketches of other characters.
Pat Barker raises issues that challenge the readers to discover for themselves. At no time is the book gory and the author makes no judgements. It can be read as a type of thriller, certainly the suspense lasts until the final page.
The subject matter may be controversial, but no definitions of “good” or “evil” appear here.
You may come to love or hate each character, but I would defy any reader to come away without being affected by the characters and the “taboo” topic.
Personally, I found the book totally enthralling and any insights I may have gained takes the story into a different dimension than any other I have read.

This novel has first-rate reviews, but one stands out as the message it conveys to me.

“A brave novel. Barker has squared up to some of the most intimidating of later-day social issues. She refuses to be horrified by these issues, for to be horrified is to advert one’s gaze………..this is too be applauded”
The Time’s Literary Supplement.

I bought this book at the full price of £6.99, but it is available on Amazon at many different lower prices, depending on which publisher you choose. Mine is a Penguin edition, to complement the other four I have bought.
Read it if you dare, you will soon become a fan of Pat Barker.
Thanks for reading.
Lisa. 

...less