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Regeneration by Pat Barker

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forgottensecret's review against another edition

4.0

'After leaving Burns, Rivers went up a further short flight of stairs and unlocked the door to the tower. Apart from his own bedroom, this was the only place in Craiglockhart he could hope to be alone for more than a few minutes. The patients weren’t allowed out here, in case the hundred-foot drop to the path below should prove too tempting an exit from the war. He rested his arms on the iron balustrade and looked out towards the hills.'

'Regeneration' is the first of the Regeneration trilogy, a set of novels on the First World War. Pat Barker would win the Booker Prize for the third, 'The Ghost Road'. For a war in which most of its participants have died, Barker's writing attains a closeness and depth of characterisation that erodes temporal distance. This is partly achieved because many of the main characters like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen left a literary history. She also drew from the resources of the psychiatrist, Dr W.H.R. Rivers.

'Regeneration' mainly takes place at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, with it opening in Dr Rivers reading Sassoon's 1917 declaration against the war. Sassoon's friend, Robert Graves, and the British government are attempting to chalk up Sassoon's irresoluteness to shell-shock or some mental ailment. The alternative would be a court-martial. Rivers is suspect that it is shell-shock and hopes to steer Sassoon back to the front.

The novel centres around Rivers and his role in the recovery of the men. For Sassoon and Billy Prior, he is like a father. He has the compassion demanded of a psychiatrist to deal with such trauma: in dealing with Prior's mutism, or the verbal parrying with Sassoon, or dealing with the haunted yelling of patients awakening from a nightmare, he rarely resents his position. His nightly bath is seemingly the only time he takes for himself. Only at the close of Part Two does he take time off.

In that break, we learn more about Rivers and how his father helped deal with his stammer. This recurs for him even as an adult. The care that Rivers has is most clearly noticed late in the novel when he leaves his position and meets Dr Lewis Yealland. In contrast to the talk-therapy, Freudian dream analysis and kindness of Rivers, Yealland uses electro-shock therapy. Accompanying this, he chides the patient, blasting them for weakness and believes that the only issue is the patient's will to get better. For Yealland, a patient enters the electrical room knowing that they cannot leave until they're cured. Movies like 'Saw' are tame in comparison to the mental torture that Barker illustrates here.

A parallel story to Rivers is of the patient, Billy Prior, and his growing romance with Sarah, a Geordie and munitions factory worker. This gave a levity to the novel, with the familiar concert of love and romance able to occur during such a difficult time.

Overall, this was an excellent novel that touched on many important themes. A great start to the Regeneration trilogy.

swansuponledas's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

thisstoryaintover's review against another edition

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3.5 stars
wonderful dialogue and writing, slow in some parts, especially the second half, but the first half was great and quite captivating

ellie_cripps's review against another edition

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2.0

This was my second attempt to read this book, and it really wasn't for me. I found Barker's interpretation of real people hard to become invested in, despite being keen on the period of history, and ultimately I found myself confused by the huge enthusiasm for the book.