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geoffreyjen 's review for:
Regeneration
by Pat Barker
This book was recommended to me as a finely written book dealing with trauma and its aftereffects, as well as possible treatments. As my own writing deals with these issues, it was suggested to me that I might study Pat Barker’s methods. I liked the book, and, indeed, found it a useful source of good writing about this complex issue. The book also, however, weaves together fiction and historical fact, drawing on the lives of two poets who wrote about the turmoil of the First World War, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfrid Owen, and who were treated at the psychiatric hospital where most of the novel takes place. Sassoon was also a source of inspiration for Sri Aurobindo, another writer I have been reading, and so Barker’s book acts as a kind of signpost for many of my current reading efforts. I also looked up the film that was made several years ago based on the story. It was a Canadian-Scottish production, and was quite faithful to the novel, and helped fill out the descriptions the author herself provided for the novel. Worth reading.