Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, focuses on treatment methods during...
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Jan 10, 2012
Brad
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This review was written in the late nineties (for my eyes only), and it was buried in amongst my things until recently when I uncovered the journal in which it was written. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets may indicate some additional information for the sake of readability or some sort of commentary from now). This is one of my lost reviews.
Rarely is a book's theme so fittingly captured in a title than it is with Pat Barker's Regeneration More...
Rarely is a book's theme so fittingly captured in a title than it is with Pat Barker's Regeneration More...
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(6 people liked it)
Oct 04, 2008
Philip
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In Regeneration, Pat Barker fictionalises an encounter between H. R. Rivers and Siegfrid Sasson in a military psychological hospital. In Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, there are numerous war wounded, whose experiences in the Flanders trenches of the First World War have left them psychologically, as well as sometimes physically scarred. The symptoms are many and varied. In Sassoon´s case it is possible that the motivation might even be political, rather than psychological.
Rivers atte More...
Rivers atte More...
Aug 21, 2008
Laura
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For me, this first book in Pat Barker’s trilogy presents a perfect storm of interests — World War I, English poets, and madness. Incorporating actual people and events into the narrative, the novel takes place at Craiglockhart, a hospital outside Edinburgh requisitioned in 1916 as a facility for officers suffering from shell-shock. Supervising the show is Dr. William Rivers, a real-life neurologist, anthropologist, and psychiatrist who pioneered early work in nerve regeneration.
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(5 people liked it)
Sep 21, 2009
Stephanie
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I am not giving this book one star because I find the subject matter troubling or because I'm not used to required reading.
I am giving this book one star because it is overrated, self-serving junk. Pat Barker has plucked from history characters that were perfectly capable of speaking for themselves (we know this because most of them were writers) and forced into them her own flat, inexperienced voice. It seems as though, for many people, the book's politics make up for its nonexist More...
I am giving this book one star because it is overrated, self-serving junk. Pat Barker has plucked from history characters that were perfectly capable of speaking for themselves (we know this because most of them were writers) and forced into them her own flat, inexperienced voice. It seems as though, for many people, the book's politics make up for its nonexist More...
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(7 people liked it)
Mar 29, 2009
Ma'lis
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World War I novel focused on earlier Freudian work with British officers suffering from various forms of shell shock. The archaeologist and psychiatrist Rivers is a fascinating character.
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May 11, 2008
Erik
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World War I is a favorite time period of mine. That said, I tend to dislike serious attempts at literature about a time other than our own, that is, I don't mind Gore Vidal writing an entertaining book about Aaron Burr, but I'm a little more suspicious of a contemporary writing literature about, say, 17th century Britain. However, Barker really pulls it off in this book, mostly set in a mental ward during WWI, a mental ward that happened to house Wilfred Owen and Sigfriend Sassoon. This was t
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Feb 19, 2012
Anna
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Many of the other reviewers have discussed this book's plot and its themes, as well as its remarkably good writing and its painstaking historical research. There's something else about this book that is also extraordinary: its sheer intelligence. Pat Barker introduces the reader not just to the mind of a remarkable psychiatrist, but also to those of various soldiers suffering from various degrees of shell shock from World War I, as well as a woman who is dating one of these soldiers. In each cas
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Jan 02, 2012
Regeneration, by Pat Barker, Borrowed from National Library Service for the Blind and read on cassettes.
This is the first book of a trilogy in which Barker explores the effects of WW I on the British soldiers who fought it and who suffered what were then called shell shock injuries. This first book mainly involved a psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, who was treating some of these soldiers at a hospital for the criminally insane, called Craiglockhart Hospital. There was a lot of dialogue he More...
This is the first book of a trilogy in which Barker explores the effects of WW I on the British soldiers who fought it and who suffered what were then called shell shock injuries. This first book mainly involved a psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, who was treating some of these soldiers at a hospital for the criminally insane, called Craiglockhart Hospital. There was a lot of dialogue he More...
Oct 22, 2011
Al
rated it:
I tried reading "Regeneration" a few years back, but I couldn't get into it. I've recently read a history of World War I that gave particular focus on those in Britain who opposed the war ("To End All Wars"), and that was an enormous help in revisiting Pat Barker's novel. This is brillant writing with extraordinary understanding of the real-life characters. Here's an example of what I mean. In this passage a hospitalized soldier is starting a relationship with a woman he'
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Sep 25, 2011
Shell-shocked Billy Prior describes to his psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, the WWI battlefield:
"'....Your watch is brought back by a runner, having been synchronized at headquarters.' A long pause. 'You wait, you try to calm down anybody who's obviously shitting himself or on the verge of throwing up. You hope you won't do either of those things yourself. Then you start the count down: ten, nine, eight ... so on. You blow the whistle. You climb the ladder. Then you double through a ga More...
"'....Your watch is brought back by a runner, having been synchronized at headquarters.' A long pause. 'You wait, you try to calm down anybody who's obviously shitting himself or on the verge of throwing up. You hope you won't do either of those things yourself. Then you start the count down: ten, nine, eight ... so on. You blow the whistle. You climb the ladder. Then you double through a ga More...
Sep 05, 2011
Patricia
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One of those books that hover on the sidelines, suddenly the time has come. I found a nice set of Pat Barker's whole Regeneration trilogy at Boulder Books and began this first volume rather fuzzily aware of the themes of WWI, but finding immediate consuming involvement in the story built around Siegried Sassoon. In 1917, Sassoon writes "A Soldier's Declaration" in which the poet, a decorated officer, makes "an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war
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Sep 03, 2011
Lisa
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Normally a cure implies that the patient will no longer engage in behaviour that is clearly self-destructive. But in present circumstances, recovery meant the resumption of activities that were not merely self-destructive but positively suicidal.
Such are the conclusions of Dr. Rivers, a psychiatrist working with shell-shocked soldiers in 1917 England. His most recent patient is Siegfried Sassoon, a poet and decorated soldier, who has written a declaration calling the war a senseless More...
Such are the conclusions of Dr. Rivers, a psychiatrist working with shell-shocked soldiers in 1917 England. His most recent patient is Siegfried Sassoon, a poet and decorated soldier, who has written a declaration calling the war a senseless More...
Jun 01, 2011
Caroline
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This book is hard to describe, because the knee-jerk reaction is to say it's about Siegfried Sasson receiving treatment at Craiglockhart Hospital during WW1, which is ostensibly true, but it gives the wrong impression about who the book is really about. More than Sasson or Robert Graves or Wildfred Owen, all of whom make appearances, this book is really about Rivers and the methods he uses to treat them.
It's hard even to describe it as a war novel, because unlike 'Birdsong', for exampl More...
It's hard even to describe it as a war novel, because unlike 'Birdsong', for exampl More...
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Dec 10, 2010
Kirsty
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I wasn't sure what I'd think of this - all I knew of it was that it was highly thought of and was about the First World War. I was kind of expecting trenches and bloodshed and horrifics and wasn't at all sure that was what I felt like reading. Actually it's set in a psychiatric hospital in 1917 so it's a more contemplative look at the war than I expected.
The character list featured numerous names I recognised: Sigfried Sasson, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves - so I wasn't quite sure how mu More...
The character list featured numerous names I recognised: Sigfried Sasson, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves - so I wasn't quite sure how mu More...
Nov 02, 2010
Michael
rated it:
Get a feel for dealing with one's mental health...
This book was given to me as a gift. It's quite simply a book about the trials and tribulations of World War I soldiers who ended up in a British Mental Hospital for various reasons. It reminded me of the discrimination and improper treatments that took place....and most likely...still do...towards patients that find the misfortune to end up in a locked facility. This book will be rewarding to any one who has felt mentally depressed & More...
This book was given to me as a gift. It's quite simply a book about the trials and tribulations of World War I soldiers who ended up in a British Mental Hospital for various reasons. It reminded me of the discrimination and improper treatments that took place....and most likely...still do...towards patients that find the misfortune to end up in a locked facility. This book will be rewarding to any one who has felt mentally depressed & More...
May 22, 2010
Maria Grazia
rated it:
Regeneration, Pat Barker's first novel in her Great War trilogy, is a work of historical fiction focusing on Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland in 1917.
Though Barker traces her interest in World War I back to her early childhood, she attributes the immediate inspiration for Regeneration to her husband, a neurologist, who was familiar with Dr. W.H.R. Rivers's experiments on nerve regeneration in the early twentieth century.
POETS AT WAR
At least three of the nove More...
Though Barker traces her interest in World War I back to her early childhood, she attributes the immediate inspiration for Regeneration to her husband, a neurologist, who was familiar with Dr. W.H.R. Rivers's experiments on nerve regeneration in the early twentieth century.
POETS AT WAR
At least three of the nove More...
Dec 28, 2009
trishtrash
rated it:
Simply the best book I've read for a long time. I very much want to read the next two in the trilogy, although Regeneration stands perfectly well on it's own.
A fictional depiction of a real event, Barker visits the harrowing effect of the first world war trenches on inmates of a mental facility where eminent war poet Siegfried Sassoon spends time under the care of Dr. Rivers, an overworked psychiatrist with his own demons to battle. Sassoon had publicly decried the continuation of More...
A fictional depiction of a real event, Barker visits the harrowing effect of the first world war trenches on inmates of a mental facility where eminent war poet Siegfried Sassoon spends time under the care of Dr. Rivers, an overworked psychiatrist with his own demons to battle. Sassoon had publicly decried the continuation of More...
Oct 10, 2009
Jon
rated it:
I confess I'd never heard of Pat Barker and didn't even know if she was male or female until I got this book on a Goodreads recommendation. The first book in a trilogy which I will certainly be finishing. As the blurb says, the prose is spare and compact, nuanced and detailed. I can't imagine that there is a position anywhere on the spectrum from "War is obscene" to "War is man's noblest calling" that doesn't get considered in this book. The main character is Dr. Rivers (a re
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Sep 16, 2009
Jason
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A realist novel, set in an officer's psych ward during WWI, revolving around a couple of real poets, a fictional obstinate young officer, and their interactions with a Freudian shrink. Barker makes some interesting observations about about the war, pacifism, heroism, responsibility, duty, etc. without terribly fleshing any particular idea out to my satisfaction. The writing is dry and the dialogue can be quite stilted. that might be a good thing as when Barker lets her writerly gifts take hold o
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Sep 07, 2009
Alline
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One of the most affecting, most poignant books about WWI, trench warfare, and the emotional devastation it caused. A compelling, interesting read, I learned so much about how "shell shock" (now PTSD) was viewed, WWI poets, and what might have really happened to my grandfather in Flanders. VERY highly recommended.
This description from Library Review (via amazon) does a much better job:
In 1917, decorated British officer and poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote a declaration co More...
This description from Library Review (via amazon) does a much better job:
In 1917, decorated British officer and poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote a declaration co More...
Aug 04, 2009
Stephen
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What a great book! Barker writes undramatically about the most horrific events and precisely because of this elevates their atrociousness. I have a fascination for WWI and this book takes a look at the soldiers that suffered mental breakdown as a result of the war. The amazing thing was that shell shock was often seen as nonsense during this time by many officers. OMG! The senseless violence and carnage of WWI never fails to astound me. Through this book I came to understand a bit more about the
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Aug 02, 2009
Stephanie
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I'm not much of a reader of World War literature, but this book came highly recommended and it lived up to that recommendation. It gives you a taste of horrific and graphic WWI trench warfare without actually having a character on the battlefield during the course of the novel. An anti-war novel without the war, as it were. The author places her young soldiers in a British war hospital, where they are sent (to their intense shame) to be under psychiatric care. All of them have some psychological
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Jun 16, 2009
Becky
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Wahey! At last, a book that comes in as more than just averagely good! Regeneration tells of the treatment methods of one of the leading Psychiatrists at the Craiglockhart Officer's Hospital during World War I. This is the hospital that was made famous after the war as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the war poets, both resided there for a time.
The novel visits both of these characters, but its real strength is in portraying the great difficulty of adjusting to life post con More...
The novel visits both of these characters, but its real strength is in portraying the great difficulty of adjusting to life post con More...
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Jul 06, 2009
Eric
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I've gone about reading the Regeneration trilogy in a mixed up fashion, starting with last book, The Ghost Road, the the first book, Regeneration. I did not think Ghost Road was great, and having now read Regeneration I am struck by how different the two books are, so different it seems almost as if they were written by two separate authors. Where Ghost Road jumped rather erratically from story to story and from Britain, to France, to Indonesia (my least favorite aspect of the book), Regenerat
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Jun 15, 2009
Cathy
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This is the first book in Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy. The actual historic characters (Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, William Rivers) are mingled among fictional characters. The horrors of war are described with such little emotional weight, yet they are truly horrifying. The casualties, the manifestations of shell shock (now PTSD) are reported and sink in precisely because of the "just the facts" tone, although their impact on everyone is devastating.
What did I More...
What did I More...
Aug 09, 2009
Katherine
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"Every case posed implicit questions about the individual costs of the war...(115).
"Ranged at intervals around the walls, big heavy pieces of furniture squatted on their own shadows" (153).
"...the relationship between father and son is never simple and never over. Death certainly doesn't end it. In the past year he'd thought more about his father than he'd done since he was a child" (155-156).
"The sea was almost inaudible, a tooth More...
"Ranged at intervals around the walls, big heavy pieces of furniture squatted on their own shadows" (153).
"...the relationship between father and son is never simple and never over. Death certainly doesn't end it. In the past year he'd thought more about his father than he'd done since he was a child" (155-156).
"The sea was almost inaudible, a tooth More...
Dec 11, 2009
Mary
rated it:
Barker focuses on the most important of all issues: how an individual lives a life of integrity in the face of opposition from family, friends and society at large. The characters and events of Barker's book are based on historic truths, namely, the poet Siegfried Sassoon's profoundly moral letter of protest to the senseless, endless loss of life that was killing his generation in the trenches of France during World War I. His statement, read aloud in the British parliament, came as a result of
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Mar 31, 2009
Mike
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I liked this book overall. Three general issues prevented full enjoyment: One, this is a very British story and I was stalled by the verbage in the dialogue numerous times. Two, character "background" is extremely lacking, so that I actually felt I was thrust into an ongoing story (in fact I couldn't help feeling this was the middle, not the start, of a trilogy). An example is the early appearance of one Captain Graves. For one who, like many readers, likes to pick up a book fresh with
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Jan 03, 2012
Ted
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I have found all of Pat Barker's books that I have read fascinating, and I especially like the Regeneration trilogy. (Regeneration, The Eye In The Door, The Ghost Road) These novels, about the psychological toll that World War I exacted on some of its (at least temporary) survivors, are wrenching. I've always been fascinated by World War I, especially from the English perspective. What a way to start the twentieth century; and of course, rather than a war to end wars, it was merely an introd
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Feb 16, 2011
Hollie
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I like reading books about war. World Wars one and two to be more specific, but really, if it's got something to do with war, then I'll be interested. Regeneration was recommended to me by my form tutor during a conversation about the books that we loved and loathed. I looked the book up on the internet, and have wanted to read it ever since.
I liked how the book focused on a different character at certain points, it allowed me to create a wonderful connection with the characters, par More...
I liked how the book focused on a different character at certain points, it allowed me to create a wonderful connection with the characters, par More...
