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katiechasingchapters 's review for:
Regeneration
by Pat Barker
What a book. Pat Barker writes beautifully and viscerally in this interweaving story of fact and fiction.
Regeneration follows the harrowing stories of British soldiers being treated for 'shell shock' at Craiglockhart War Hospital in 1917. We follow anthropologist and psychologist William Rivers as he treats patients suffering with what we would now call PTSD. One such patient is poet Siegfried Sassoon, who has been sent to Craiglockhart for releasing an anti war declaration, claiming that men are dying needlessly as the war continues with no end in sight. Billy Prior, David Burns and Wilfred Owen are other notable patients struggling to recover and reconcile with their time in France. Barker covers topics such as war, class, homosexuality, suicide, trauma and masculinity.
I also enjoyed the book's portrayal of women during the war, including how many women took up jobs they wouldn't otherwise be permitted to during peace time. And how for some women dealing with unhappy or abusive home's, having their husbands away in France was a chance for them to find freedom and contentment.
Haunting and heartbreaking, but written brilliantly.
Regeneration follows the harrowing stories of British soldiers being treated for 'shell shock' at Craiglockhart War Hospital in 1917. We follow anthropologist and psychologist William Rivers as he treats patients suffering with what we would now call PTSD. One such patient is poet Siegfried Sassoon, who has been sent to Craiglockhart for releasing an anti war declaration, claiming that men are dying needlessly as the war continues with no end in sight. Billy Prior, David Burns and Wilfred Owen are other notable patients struggling to recover and reconcile with their time in France. Barker covers topics such as war, class, homosexuality, suicide, trauma and masculinity.
I also enjoyed the book's portrayal of women during the war, including how many women took up jobs they wouldn't otherwise be permitted to during peace time. And how for some women dealing with unhappy or abusive home's, having their husbands away in France was a chance for them to find freedom and contentment.
Haunting and heartbreaking, but written brilliantly.