'Regeneration' by Pat Barker

Published by The Penguin Group (1991), paperback, 250 pages, £8.99, buy on amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Regeneration-Pat-Barker/dp/0141030933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319469600&sr=8-1


Regeneration is the first novel of the Regeneration Trilogy and is subsequently followed by The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road.


Regeneration is set in July 1917 during the First World War when Siegfried Sassoon had just publicly released A Soldier's Declaration protesting against the  continuation of the war. In consequence, Sassoon was labelled 'shell-shocked' and thus committed to Craiglockhart Hospital for his 'recovery'. The protagonist, Dr W.H.R Rivers, is a psychiatrist who adopts experimental treatments which possess substantially more sensitive therapies compared to electrical treatments common at the time. Barker explores the psychoanalytical treatment that  Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and several other fictitious, but nonetheless prominent, characters receive by Rivers and uncovers the horrific scars the war has left on these soldiers. This is a novel that interweaves fact and fiction exploring the real characters of Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Dr W.H.R Rivers through embellishing fact with the vivid imaginings of the author.

The First World War was a period that gained notable attention within literature of the 1990s. Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, Susan Hill’s Strange Meeting and Ian McEwan’s Atonement are just a few of the novels possessing such a focus. The recurring theme of suffering which emanates from such an horrific event is an issue which was thoroughly explored in such works, however, it is Pat Barker’s novel Regeneration which, in particular, illustrates the traumatism and hysteria endured by a great number of soldiers fighting in World War I. Barker analyses the affects of war neuroses and the experimental treatments which attempt to heal soldiers who have rapidly disintegrated into vulnerable beings.  Pat Barker illustrates that the trauma lies not only in the soldiers but in the whole of society, repressing the memory of war into an inaccessible corner in the back of citizens’ minds. Trauma was suffered by everyone in some way, and as we explore the extent and horrors of its wounds, we quickly learn, as Rivers does, that ‘Nothing can justify this. Nothing, nothing, nothing.’


I highly recommend this book, especially if you have an interest in war literature and psychoanalysis: it is highly emotional and thought-provoking and successfully conveys the complexity and fragility of humanity. Perhaps not one to read on holiday though!