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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
After trying to read this book 3 times, and struggling with the beginning of the book, this time I persevered and discovered I actually loved the way in which Pat Barker portrayed the mental fragility experienced by the young men who sacrificed their lives. The graphic detail of the trauma and Sassoon's sincere struggle with the war's motivations was extremely moving.
I have always enjoyed Pat Barker's books so I look forward to reading more!
I have always enjoyed Pat Barker's books so I look forward to reading more!
i read this in just over a week for my english literature class i found it quite hard to distinguish the 3 main male characters from each other which is bad because Wilfred Owen and at least one other character is a real person from that time i will be going over this book multiple times to take from it what i need
some of the imagery is powerful and easy to visualize and there is references to homosexuality which i found engaging if it wasn't clear before now i am gay
this is not a title i would have chosen to read for fun but i did find parts of it entertaining but no doubt i will loath the book by the end of my corse
some of the imagery is powerful and easy to visualize and there is references to homosexuality which i found engaging if it wasn't clear before now i am gay
this is not a title i would have chosen to read for fun but i did find parts of it entertaining but no doubt i will loath the book by the end of my corse
What a terrific book. Set in 1917 in a psychiatric hospital specializing in the treatment of shell shock, it focuses on the relationship between the head psychiatrist (Rivers) and his patients. A humanist, Rivers is in a quandary as he is obligated to coax his patients back to 'sanity' so they can return to the front. But isn't a breakdown that removes one from such a war a truly sane reaction? Tellingly, Rivers begins to exhibit some of the PTSD symptoms that he finds in his patients, particularly as he gains sympathy with their point of view. The dehumanizing cruelty of another practitioner's treatment of such patients (Yealland), comes as a real shock late in the novel.
Many of the characters are fictionalized versions of real people (Dr. Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Dr. Yealland) while others are purely invented. Barker has done a great job of blending the historical facts into the narrative. You'll want to include this in your reading list of WWI literature as we approach the hundredth anniversary of its commencement.
Many of the characters are fictionalized versions of real people (Dr. Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Dr. Yealland) while others are purely invented. Barker has done a great job of blending the historical facts into the narrative. You'll want to include this in your reading list of WWI literature as we approach the hundredth anniversary of its commencement.
This was on my wish list as a want to re-read someday after reading a borrowed copy.
The descriptions of the trenches, the shell-shocked soldiers and the treatment meted out to them in less-enlightened hospitals than Craiglockhart were all as horrifying as the first-time round, and Rivers' relationships with his patients as movingly described. Bald histories do not tell the stories of these traumatised boys, nor the effects of their experiences on subsequent relationships, in such a clear way.
Thoroughly recommended, and not just as an adjunct to the study of Sassoon, Graves, Owen et al.
The descriptions of the trenches, the shell-shocked soldiers and the treatment meted out to them in less-enlightened hospitals than Craiglockhart were all as horrifying as the first-time round, and Rivers' relationships with his patients as movingly described. Bald histories do not tell the stories of these traumatised boys, nor the effects of their experiences on subsequent relationships, in such a clear way.
Thoroughly recommended, and not just as an adjunct to the study of Sassoon, Graves, Owen et al.
In the midst of WWI, decorated officer / poet Siegfried Sassoon publishes a statement against the war. Because he is rich, he is sent to Craiglockhart to be treated by Dr. Rivers for neurasthenia instead of being court martialed. All of this really happened. So begins Regeneration, which examines the experiences of Sassoon and other patients at Craiglockhart and their relationships with Dr. Rivers.
This book is tragic, particularly when one thinks about how these dreadful things actually did happen. BUT IT IS SO GOOD. There was not one character I disliked, except for perhaps Robert Graves, who is sort of a jerk. But it is very hard to dislike anyone - even when they are being complete jerks and hate everyone - when they wake up screaming from terrible nightmares and have complete and utter breakdowns because what they've experienced is awful and incomprehensible. IT IS SO HEARTBREAKING. And yes, likeable characters are important to me, so shut up.
There's a lot of subject matter crammed into a relatively short book, but its handled in a natural, unobtrusive way - shell shock in the infantry versus the RAF, the opportunities suddenly available to women, psychoanalysis, the various (and sometimes harrowing) methods for treating shell shock, the inability of civilians to comprehend basically anything, the rage soldiers felt towards the civilian population, the dismantling of an entire upbringing of suppressed emotions, and, of course, the ever present class system. Craiglockhart treats officers, who mostly come from upper middle and upper class backgrounds. William Prior has risen into the officer class: he resents the upper class, but he doesn't quite fit in with the working class. Curiously, he arrives at Craiglockhart mute, which Dr. Rivers tells him is an affliction more common amongst enlisted soldiers; officers typically stammer. Also, he is kind of a jerk and a total sex fiend who may or may not be bisexual. Obviously, I loved him.
Finally, the handsomeness of Siegfried Sassoon is mentioned and ... okay. I know this is random but in Mighty Ducks 2, this Texan cowboy (who is basically the human version of Woody from Toy Story) joins the hockey team. He has an appalling southern accent and during a game, he actually LASSOES another player because he must fulfill every possible stereotype about Texas and cowboys even though this an ice hockey movie and not a Pace salsa commercial. My point is...Siegfried Sassoon looks just like the ice skating cowboy aka Woody, which makes Robert Graves Buzz Lightyear. I can't wait until I learn to paste photos here so I can prove my theory.
This review is all over the place so I conclude by urging you to read this book. FIN.
This book is tragic, particularly when one thinks about how these dreadful things actually did happen. BUT IT IS SO GOOD. There was not one character I disliked, except for perhaps Robert Graves, who is sort of a jerk. But it is very hard to dislike anyone - even when they are being complete jerks and hate everyone - when they wake up screaming from terrible nightmares and have complete and utter breakdowns because what they've experienced is awful and incomprehensible. IT IS SO HEARTBREAKING. And yes, likeable characters are important to me, so shut up.
There's a lot of subject matter crammed into a relatively short book, but its handled in a natural, unobtrusive way - shell shock in the infantry versus the RAF, the opportunities suddenly available to women, psychoanalysis, the various (and sometimes harrowing) methods for treating shell shock, the inability of civilians to comprehend basically anything, the rage soldiers felt towards the civilian population, the dismantling of an entire upbringing of suppressed emotions, and, of course, the ever present class system. Craiglockhart treats officers, who mostly come from upper middle and upper class backgrounds. William Prior has risen into the officer class: he resents the upper class, but he doesn't quite fit in with the working class. Curiously, he arrives at Craiglockhart mute, which Dr. Rivers tells him is an affliction more common amongst enlisted soldiers; officers typically stammer. Also, he is kind of a jerk and a total sex fiend who may or may not be bisexual. Obviously, I loved him.
Finally, the handsomeness of Siegfried Sassoon is mentioned and ... okay. I know this is random but in Mighty Ducks 2, this Texan cowboy (who is basically the human version of Woody from Toy Story) joins the hockey team. He has an appalling southern accent and during a game, he actually LASSOES another player because he must fulfill every possible stereotype about Texas and cowboys even though this an ice hockey movie and not a Pace salsa commercial. My point is...Siegfried Sassoon looks just like the ice skating cowboy aka Woody, which makes Robert Graves Buzz Lightyear. I can't wait until I learn to paste photos here so I can prove my theory.
This review is all over the place so I conclude by urging you to read this book. FIN.
A very powerful and telling novel based in a British military psychiatric hospital during WWI. Three of the main characters and the hospital existed and I get the impression that the author, Pat Barker, did much research on them when writing this book.
Many of the horrors that Captain Rivers' young officer patients have experienced are unique to WWI, such as crossing "no man's land" to spend 50 hours in a trench under bombardment, the damage done and the internal conflicts of those that lead men in war are universal.
This book is very timely as we try to cope with damage done to our veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many of the horrors that Captain Rivers' young officer patients have experienced are unique to WWI, such as crossing "no man's land" to spend 50 hours in a trench under bombardment, the damage done and the internal conflicts of those that lead men in war are universal.
This book is very timely as we try to cope with damage done to our veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, focuses on treatment methods during the war and the story of a decorated English officer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight. Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear -- the descriptions of electronic treatments are particularly harrowing -- it combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones in a work that examines the insanity of war like no other. Barker also weaves in issues of class and politics in this compactly powerful book. Other books in the series include The Eye in the Door and the Booker Award-winner The Ghost Road.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is to discuss the Great War novel you loved best.
This was *hard* because there have been several, two in the past year!, Great War-themed novels that I really love. I spent a sleepless night thinking about this. I re-read portions of both my recent reads that suit the prompt, and as much as I was enwrapt in [The Daughters of Mars], feeling the swirl and ebb of tidal feeling, I was utterly immersed in [Regeneration], I felt I was *there* and I was simply, unaccountably, invisible to the characters and so not remarked upon.
I know that Ms. Barker was born in 1943...imagine! 1943! Were there *people* then?...and so could not have witnessed the events that so utterly traumatized Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and so many thousands of other men, but you couldn't prove it by this:
If that doesn't sound exactly like something a survivor would think, I don't know what does. And yet she's 25 years younger than Armistice Day! Channeling? Spirit possession? Filing clerk for the Akashic Records Office?
That last sounds about right...anyway, there we are mise en scene with the survivors, the ones confronting a world that feels empowered to judge them for their responses to stimuli unknown to mere civilians:
Doesn't that sound like someone who hasn't had to do the job issuing a pronunciamento? An armchair warrior speaking from the privileged place of one who is defended, not one who defends. It was ever thus.
What a horror, then, to be trapped between a world that you fought to save, and that world's utter inability and complete unwillingness to learn what you lived:
That kind of knowledge would devastate Society! Undermine the Divinely Ordained Rules! Heresy!! It must be the case that these damaged men were weak, weak I say, unmanly and unworthy! It cannot be that what they lived through damaged them by its nature, or else codified gender (and skin-color) inequality is Wrong. And we all know that it is Right!
Ugh. But blessedly, the Great War began a process of (wrenching, painful) psychic change that the Ruling Elite has been resisting, beating back, discrediting at every opportunity, and with increasing success, for 95 years:
Look at the returned Iraq War and Afghan War veterans...disillusioned, mutilated in body and in soul even when bodies are whole, record numbers of veteran suicides stand to our national, human discredit, exactly as they did then, and all because:
If that sentence does not make you weep actual physical tears of helpless sadness and empathetic misery, you are wanting in basic human kindness.
In the end, the reason I selected this book as my favorite Great War novel ahead of all others, is this simple distillation of the pointlessness of war in the face of its costs:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, focuses on treatment methods during the war and the story of a decorated English officer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight. Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear -- the descriptions of electronic treatments are particularly harrowing -- it combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones in a work that examines the insanity of war like no other. Barker also weaves in issues of class and politics in this compactly powerful book. Other books in the series include The Eye in the Door and the Booker Award-winner The Ghost Road.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is to discuss the Great War novel you loved best.
This was *hard* because there have been several, two in the past year!, Great War-themed novels that I really love. I spent a sleepless night thinking about this. I re-read portions of both my recent reads that suit the prompt, and as much as I was enwrapt in [The Daughters of Mars], feeling the swirl and ebb of tidal feeling, I was utterly immersed in [Regeneration], I felt I was *there* and I was simply, unaccountably, invisible to the characters and so not remarked upon.
I know that Ms. Barker was born in 1943...imagine! 1943! Were there *people* then?...and so could not have witnessed the events that so utterly traumatized Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and so many thousands of other men, but you couldn't prove it by this:
Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough's army, than to think they'd been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice, saying: 'Run along, little man, be glad you've survived'.
If that doesn't sound exactly like something a survivor would think, I don't know what does. And yet she's 25 years younger than Armistice Day! Channeling? Spirit possession? Filing clerk for the Akashic Records Office?
That last sounds about right...anyway, there we are mise en scene with the survivors, the ones confronting a world that feels empowered to judge them for their responses to stimuli unknown to mere civilians:
The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a contract merely because you've changed your mind. You can still speak up for your principles, you can still argue against the ones you're being made to fight for, but in the end you do the job.
Doesn't that sound like someone who hasn't had to do the job issuing a pronunciamento? An armchair warrior speaking from the privileged place of one who is defended, not one who defends. It was ever thus.
What a horror, then, to be trapped between a world that you fought to save, and that world's utter inability and complete unwillingness to learn what you lived:
This reinforced Rivers’s view that it was prolonged strain, immobility and helplessness that did the damage, and not the sudden shocks or bizarre horrors that the patients themselves were inclined to point to as the explanation for their condition. That would help to account for the greater prevalence of anxiety neuroses and hysterical disorders in women in peacetime, since their relatively more confined lives gave them fewer opportunities of reacting to stress in active and constructive ways. Any explanation of war neurosis must account for the fact that this apparently intensely masculine life of war and danger and hardship produced in men the same disorders that women suffered from in peace.
That kind of knowledge would devastate Society! Undermine the Divinely Ordained Rules! Heresy!! It must be the case that these damaged men were weak, weak I say, unmanly and unworthy! It cannot be that what they lived through damaged them by its nature, or else codified gender (and skin-color) inequality is Wrong. And we all know that it is Right!
Ugh. But blessedly, the Great War began a process of (wrenching, painful) psychic change that the Ruling Elite has been resisting, beating back, discrediting at every opportunity, and with increasing success, for 95 years:
It was... the Great White God de-throned, I suppose. Because we did, we quite unselfconsciously assumed we were the measure of all things. That was how we approached them. And suddenly I saw that we weren't the measure of all things, but that there was no measure.
Look at the returned Iraq War and Afghan War veterans...disillusioned, mutilated in body and in soul even when bodies are whole, record numbers of veteran suicides stand to our national, human discredit, exactly as they did then, and all because:
You know you're walking around with a mask on, and you desperately want to take it off and you can't because everybody else thinks it's your face.
If that sentence does not make you weep actual physical tears of helpless sadness and empathetic misery, you are wanting in basic human kindness.
In the end, the reason I selected this book as my favorite Great War novel ahead of all others, is this simple distillation of the pointlessness of war in the face of its costs:
And as soon as you accepted that the man’s breakdown was a consequence of his war experience rather than his own innate weakness, then inevitably the war became the issue. And the therapy was a test, not only of the genuineness of the individual’s symptoms, but also of the validity of the demands the war was making on him. Rivers had survived partly by suppressing his awareness of this. But then along came Sassoon and made the justifiability of the war a matter for constant, open debate, and that suppression was no longer possible.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Just incredible. So vivid. Really human perspective on the First World War. I absolutely loved it, and can't recommend it enough.
Just arrived from UK through BM.
This is the story of Siegfried Sassoon an English poet, author and soldier who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, and his mental treatment at Craiglockhart War Hospital.
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He was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers who has to decide if it's appropriate to send Sassoon back to the front or not.
.jpg/200px-W.H.R.Rivers_(Maull).jpg)
From Wikipedia: During the war, he worked as a RAMC captain at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he applied techniques of psychoanalysis to British officers suffering from various forms of neurosis brought on by their war experiences.
A brilliant book by Pat Barker and there are still two more books of this trilogy: The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road
This is the story of Siegfried Sassoon an English poet, author and soldier who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, and his mental treatment at Craiglockhart War Hospital.
He was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers who has to decide if it's appropriate to send Sassoon back to the front or not.
From Wikipedia: During the war, he worked as a RAMC captain at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he applied techniques of psychoanalysis to British officers suffering from various forms of neurosis brought on by their war experiences.
A brilliant book by Pat Barker and there are still two more books of this trilogy: The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road