A review by ed_moore
Regeneration by Pat Barker

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Barker’s ‘Regeneration’ is a different sort of war story. It focuses on the physiatrist Rivers and his patients at Craiglockhart Memorial Hospital, helping those traumatised from their service in WW1. His job is to cure them so they become mentally stable enough to return to the front, and when this is impossible the patient is deemed a ‘failure’. This mindset evolves when Rivers is assigned the poet Siegfried Sassoon as a patient, who believes the war is only still ongoing due to warmongers, all the death is futile and it can be stopped, and hence begins Rivers evolution in mindset towards the First World War.

‘Regeneration’ followed the storylines of numerous patients, and inevitably I preferred the company of some than others. Unfortunately one of the primary characters was a man called Prior who Barker placed a lot of emphasis from and I just really didn’t like the chapters that focused on him. He was generally unlikeable and though his mental condition completely justifies such, it still didn’t mean I wasn’t yearning for Sassoon. That being said, I adored the scenes between Wilfred Owen and Sassoon and the budding relationship of the two poets. The mentorship was so wholesome and yet so painful knowing how history plays out. Owen also played a very small role in the book which I would have loved to see more of. 

The book felt both very static and constantly changing somehow, especially with the shift of Rivers setting towards the end which left me desiring what I already knew. The speed in which departures of characters occurred I suppose contributed to such. All together ‘Regeneration’ was heart-wrenching and traumatising given its themes and context, yet also Barker wrote it so beautifully. I am surprised that it is a trilogy however as I feel there isn’t much more to be said and its harsh conclusion made the point that Barker had intended. 

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