nijinsky 's review for:

Regeneration by Pat Barker
4.0
emotional reflective medium-paced
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Regeneration walks through its character's minds to gradually craft itself. When you draw back to look at the book as a whole, you find it is just what they promised you - an intriguing, melancholic, look at the men (for it is wholly focused on the soldiers and the men who treated them in Craiglockhart) spat out by WWI. The presence of actual, historical figures - Siegfried Sassoon, Dr. Rivers, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves - is enriching, and prompted me to reread both Sassoon and Owens' poetry in the days after I'd finished Regeneration, with a fresh view of both poets. Barker handles the unhappy subject matter with care and insight, and this book has stayed with me since I read it over a month ago.