Mar 13, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams on Mar 13, 2008 in 888 Challenge, Books read, Historical Fiction, Recommended Books, War | 0 comments

Regeneration – Pat Barker

I studied World War I in my final year at school, and after finishing A Long Long Way, I wanted to continue my reading on it. Fortunately, my book club then selected Regeneration by Pat Barker which gave me another opportunity to read about the same war, from a different viewpoint and with a completely different atmosphere.

Much has been written about this book. It is a novel based around fact – in 1917, Siegfried Sassoon wrote a Declaration in protest against the futility of continuing the war. Sassoon, thanks to an intervention by his friend Robert Graves is sent to Craiglockhart, a psychiatric hospital, rather than court marshalled for his outspokenness. This novel traces his weeks there and the people he encounters including his doctor, W.H.R. Rivers, and the young, doomed poet Wilfred Owen. It focuses on the mental processes which each character goes through as they contemplate their experiences and their bleak future.

I don’t believe it is possible to write a book about the Great War that doesn’t come across as tragic in some way. This book is no different however the tragedy is more psychological than graphic. The war was fought at a time when shell-shock was seen as curable and mental breakdown was seen as cowardice. It was a time when psychological problems were misunderstood, and duty and societal expectation drove everything. Rivers, who is quite forward-thinking in his methods is in private accord with Sassoon about the futility of the war and the damage that is wrought by it, but he too is driven by duty to get the men back to the front.

I loved this book because of the psychological insight it offered. The disturbed peace of the hospital was palpable throughout the text because you were privileged to be able to see into the minds of the officers who had been sectioned there. There is a hopelessness in the expectations placed upon them – whether it be the haemophobic Anderson whose career as a doctor is over due to his mortal fear of blood, or the belligerent Prior whose life is a confusion of guilt, amnesia and defiance. Despite their issues, the hospital is a haven – safety from the shelling and death. But it is a temporary haven. The future holds the war, or lifelong memories to contend with at home.

And throughout is the image of Sassoon – mentor to Owen, anguished by an unrequited love for Graves, torn by his love for his men as opposed to his anger at the loss. Ultimately, his duty and emotion send him back to war, but not before he precipitates questions in the minds of everyone he touches. Sadly, despite his protest, the war continues and thousands more lives are lost.

I loved the mix of fact and fiction and would highly recommend this as a fascinating, moving account of the psychology behind the First World War and an understanding of the time.

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 0-140-12308-3
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1991
Date Finished: 11 March 2008
Pages: 250
Challenges: 2 from category 7: Books with World War I as a theme from 888 Challenge