The House of One Thousand Eyes

With the enormous popularity of dystopian teen fiction in recent years, readers sometimes forget that for many, that fiction is their terrifying reality. In The House of One Thousand Eyes, Michelle Barker reveals through the life of one vulnerable teenager the human cost of oppression in 1983 East Germany in the closing years of the Cold War.

The novel’s message is skillfully woven into an intriguing mystery through the lives of Barker’s appealing and realistic characters. Lena, a 17-year-old East German girl, is recovering after three years in a psychiatric institution where she was placed when her parents were killed in a factory explosion. Lena lives with her “Sausage Auntie”, a plump, controlling Communist Party member who is determined to shape the vulnerable Lena into a dutiful cog in the Party wheel. Lena lives for Sunday visits with her Uncle Erich, a writer whose independent thinking has brought him to the attention of the Stasi, the East German secret police.

Lena cleans offices at night at the Stasi headquarters where a high-ranking officer subjects her to sexual abuse. Trying to keep the “buzzing wasps” of mental breakdown at bay, Lena has developed an internal wall of her own, one behind which she hides the reality of her abuse, ignores the top-secret documents on desks, and complies obediently with her aunt’s orders and complaints. The wall is her means of survival in a brutal world.

But when Uncle Erich disappears and any trace of him is wiped out, Lena refuses to accept the lie, and her inner wall begins to crumble. Determined to find out where her uncle is, Lena begins to unravel a mystery with international implications. In the process, she falls in love with Max, a young actor with a plan for escape, and she faces an impossible choice – follow him to the West and leave her aunt to the brutality of the state or stay and face the consequences herself.

For older readers, the oppression and thought control of the Eastern Bloc is a recent reality. For today’s teens, however, it is the stuff of far-off foreign dictatorships or distant dystopian fiction, and a reunited Germany having a major influence in progressive Western Europe. Barker’s meticulous research brings alive a Europe divided by the Iron Curtain. Cold War era East Germany emerges in vivid detail, with reference to TV shows, maps, psychiatric institutions, prisons, food and common sayings that are historically accurate. Young people will glimpse a way of life not so long gone, and perhaps gain perspective on the precariousness of personal freedoms.

Barker’s skill extends beyond her historical research and ability to personalize a historical period for today’s young readers. Her writing is complex and evocative, full of startling comparisons: As Lena looks at Erich’s face in the window, she thinks, “There was that feeling again, like the moment when you know you’re going to miss a step going down the stairs. What could be wrong?” (p. 22). Or when she tries to find the beauty in her dowdy, droning co-worker: “It was like trying to pick the last blackberries of the season, the ones hidden at the back of the bush, without getting scratched by thorns.” (p. 47). While not a difficult read for young people, the novel provides many examples of beautiful writing that illuminate the characters’ dark circumstances.

Several aspects of the novel deserve specific comment. Lena’s sexual abuse, which escalates when her abuser discovers she has used the phone in his office, is horrifying. Barker notes that such abuse was not openly discussed at the time, and victims would not receive counselling or support. Lena’s denial is her only defense, but it is not enough to prevent her helpless torment until her co-worker, Jutta, intervenes. The sweet romance between Lena and Max reassures a reader that Lena’s capacity for love and passion has not been destroyed by her abuser. While it is not gratuitous, the abuse is described in clear enough terms that it might require caution in recommendation to young readers.

Lena’s uneven mental equilibrium is a second issue handled with delicacy by the author. Living under the constant threat of being re-committed to an institution where “patients” were controlled through drugs or brain surgery, Lena struggles to appear “normal”. She participates in her neighbourhood’s work brigade, attends youth group meetings and obeys her aunt meekly. Yet the depression that struck her at her parents’ death lurks at the periphery of her mind, and the buzzing insects of madness often threaten to destroy her emotional stability. Lena eventually emerges from her struggle, but readers clearly see the insanity of the system, both external and internal.

In The House of One Thousand Eyes, beautifully written, sensitively drawn characters combine with detailed research to create a compelling portrait of political and personal oppression. In an age of political turmoil and prevarication, Barker reminds readers young and old that freedom of thought and commitment to truth are as important today as they were a generation ago.