Regeneration (1991)

The first in a trilogy about British soldiers in WW1, this book highlights a few officers, including known poet, Siegfried Sassoon , suffering from PTSD and residents at the Craiglockhart War Hospital, an institution where they're receiving treatment and rest. The main objective of the medical team, which includes Dr William Rivers, an anthropologist, is to try to treat them to the point where they are 'cured' and can be returned to front to help fight the war.

It's an incredibly sensitive study of soldiers who have been in the midst of horrific conditions, seeing their friends cut down in front of them, having go crawl through dismembered bodies, one soldier even being hurled in the air after an explosion, only to land head first into the decomposing body of a German soldier, or forcing themselves out of the trenches, knowing they'll be walking into enemy fire.

The relationship Rivers builds with some of the patients and his method of treatment highlights the fact that PTSD, not a term used or even understood back then, is not a form of weakness or madness and should not be stigmatized, as it was in those days, and still is to a certain extent today.

The author puts a very human face to each of his characters, and raises the ethical and philosophical questions about war, making this not just historical fiction but also a very thought provoking read. The declaration by Sassoon is quoted in the beginning and is the foundation upon which the psychological and fatal effects of war may be argued.

All in all, a thoroughly good read. ( )

This World War I story focuses on a group of shell shocked British soldiers who are all patients at a psychiatric hospital in Scotland. It is an interesting way to portray the horrors of war. The reader gets snippets of some devastating scenes through the dialog between soldier and psychiatrist. Although the writing style is a bit stiff and detached, the impact is still strong. I would include this as another good anti-war book along with The Things They Carried and Catch-22. ( )

I loved this book, it's beautifully written in a tight, almost bald style. The central characters are well drawn and sympathetically portrayed, with an excellent feel for time and place. Barker explores WWI through real characters and draws on some known accounts of their experiences; Sassoon, the 'war poet' is a central character, but it is Billy Prior, shell-shocked and distressed beyond words who affects us the most.

Barker explores themes of loss, manhood, war, comradeship and early psychiatry in a powerful, moving and ultimately rewarding novel of the highest order. ( )

This little book has been a long time waiting for me. I am so glad I have finally read it! It follows the story of Sigfried Sassoon who was admitted to a WWI mental hospital for examination, and for his anti-war feelings to be eliminated/mended/erased so that he could be sent back to the front and continue doing his duty. The medical officer in charge of this feat is William Rivers. He is a middle aged man schooled in the ways of the mind, he is a kind man and a skilled manipulator of others, in a way that helps them see that their afflictions (shell-shock, anxiety and the like) can be overcome that they can carry on.

The book is so much more than its plot though. It is about war and politics, it is about mental health and the effects of what continued anxiety can do to the mind and body, and it is about right and wrong. It is beautifully written, and coupled with a great story is everything I like about books. ( )

This book revolves around the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, caught in the maelstrom of World War One. They both suffered breakdowns and were sent to a mental hospital, and the novel is a fictionalized account of their interactions with the doctor who tried to help them. This is not the story of a cure. Rather, it’s the other way around, and the doctor has to confront his own assumptions about health, survival and war.

It’s a good novel – well-written, slow to develop, respectful of its characters and the reader. Don’t expect much plot. It’s a study. It investigates, and it gets to the heart of things.
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