Regeneration
The forthcoming anniversary of the Great War should provide some motivation for readers to revisit, or discover this trilogy from the nineties. Acclaimed at the time (topped off by a Booker Prize for the last in the series The Ghost Road) it has been on my 'to read' list for many years. The story centres around an institution for mentally ill soldiers near Edinburgh, and psychologist W H Rivers. A particular focus is his relationship with patient Siegfried Sassoon and the moral conflict between his support for the war and the damage he sees in his patients.
The book sometimes feels a bit lacking in incident and plot mobility, but beautifully draws its characters. Pat Barker's research must have been detailed as her insight into the psychological treatment of the time as well as the maladies feels quite authentic. The setting is a really interesting way of exploring the consequences of the war rather than through a traditional battlefield context.
Not always an easy read the book is rewarding and insightful, and cleverly intertwines the main theme of wartime trauma and suffering with explorations of masculinity and the role of women in wartime. ( )

Interesting but I'm left somewhat let down by this one, I didn't really engage with anyone and I'm not sure I was supposed to, every time I started to get to know them I was whisked off to someone else's moment in the sun. Lots of homosexual and the odd hetrosexual encounter and sometimes I felt it was a bit more than I wanted or needed for the story, the sex felt somewhat tacked in sometimes, not a smooth flow from events.

A different view of what went on, the first book focuses on the asylum and later things move to London and to a horrible waste of humanity that was the end of the war.

Worth reading but not a story that made me feel for the characters. ( )

Audible. Three books on World War 1. Based on true story that includes Siegried Sasoon and Wilfred Owen (both poets) and Dr. Rivers (a doctor treating the soldiers for 'shell shock' who believes in talk cure ala Freud rather than shock therapy). Pat Barker is a very good author. This book allows her to explore the intertwining of stories about World War 1, poetry, Freudian theory, issues involving gays in the World War 1 period, and early 20th century anthroplogy. The 'invented' character's life intertwines with those of the 'historical' one. This is really a wonderful set of books I would recommend. Pat Barker is always reliable. ( )

Afschuwelijk goed. Valt er meer over te zeggen? De drama's van de oorlog: een pacifist die er geen is, dokters die jonge mannen oplappen zodat ze weer naar het front kunnen, de normaliteit van het afschuwelijke, dat dan onverwachts toch gruwelijk wordt. En die van het leven aan het thuisfront: klassenonderscheid, dubbele moraal, verdoken en minder verdoken seksualiteit, verzet tegen de oorlog ...

Het eerste deel, 'Niemandsland', is ongetwijfeld het beste: heroïsche gevechten in de claustrofobische omgeving van een psychiatrisch ziekenhuis. Mannen die worstelen met zichzelf, met hun emoties, met hun principes, met hun omgeving, met elkaar. De trauma's die zelfs de lezer maar moeilijk van zich afgezet krijgt: het oog van Prior, de walging van Burns ...

Het tweede deel, 'Het oog in de deur', wat meer geconstrueerd, met de nieuwe aandoening van Prior die het verhaal wel goed uitkomt. Meer het leven in Engeland dan dat aan het front: de jacht op pacifisten en die op homo's, de klassenmaatschappij ...

'De weg der geesten', de bijna magische afsluiting, waarbij de terugkeer van Prior naar het front een pendant vindt in de herinnerde terugkeer van dokter Rivers naar de Stille Zuidzee, waar hij ooit antropologisch onderzoek deed.

Rivers, Prior, Sassoon ... wees maar zeker dat ze je niet meer loslaten. ( )

Read for the January 2014 "New Beginnings" theme read" of the Reading Through Time group.

The title "Regeneration" inspired my thought of "renewal," though the "regeneration" involved is perhaps metaphorical. The title takes its name from Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, who had done pre-WW1 work in nerve regeneration but was now, during the war, working as an army psychiatrist for shell-shocked patients, who include (among others) Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (with Robert Graves making cameo appearances but not as a patient).

The trilogy is historical/biographical fiction, and it might have helped if I knew a bit more about the lives of Sassoon, Owen, and Graves, but Barker does an excellent job of giving the necessary fill-in on historical characters (especially on Rivers, who will probably not be at all known to contemporary readers).

Considering that the "regenerative" work done at Craiglockhart War Hospital was for the purpose of returning the patients to active combat, the "Regeneration" title is particularly ironic, especially considering Barker's own strongly expressed anti-war theme. ( )