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Barker, Pat
Barker, Pat, ( Patricia Barker) (1943– ), British novelist, born in Thornaby-on-Tees, north Yorkshire, educated at the London School of Economics. Her first novel, Union Street (1982), an episodic account of the lives of seven working-class neighbours, partly recalled the northern realist novels of Barstow and Sillitoe, but Barker's main characters were women. Leavening the occasional brutalism of her narratives with generosity and flashes of humour, Barker gave the novel a unique texture. Her next two novels were Blow Your House Down (1984), in which a group of prostitutes attempt to eke out their livelihood in fear of a serial killer, and The Century's Daughter (1986), an ambitious alternative history of the 20th cent. The Man Who Wasn't There (1989) concerns a daydreaming, fatherless teenager growing up in the 1950s, but her real breakthrough came with the First World War trilogy beginning with Regeneration (1991), based on an encounter between Sassoon and the psychologist Dr William Rivers at Craiglockhart War Hospital in 1917, and continued with The Eye in the Door (1993) and The Ghost Road (1995, Booker Prize), which follow the fortunes of bisexual soldier Billy Prior. The trilogy has a tragic grandeur and rigorous lack of sentimentality. Despite its contemporary setting, the First World War also haunts Another World (1998). Border Crossing (2001) explores the relationship between a psychologist and a young man who had committed murder as a child.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Barker, Pat." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Barker, Pat." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BarkerPat.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Barker, Pat." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BarkerPat.html |
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Barker, Pat
Barker, Pat (1943– ) English novelist. Barker's novels focus on the plight of women, usually in the n of England. Her debut novel was Union Street (1982). Regeneration (1991) and The Eye in the Door (1993) were the first volumes of a World War I trilogy. The final part, The Ghost Road, won the 1995 Booker Prize. Other works include Blow Your House Down (1984), The Century's Daughter (1986), and Border Crossing (2001).
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Cite this article
"Barker, Pat." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Barker, Pat." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-BarkerPat.html "Barker, Pat." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-BarkerPat.html |
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