Customer Reviews

Regeneration

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Having just finished reading this trilogy in one volume I would find it hard to read any of the books individually. Barker really builds on characterisation and plot as each of the stories progresses. Set in Scotland during World War 1 at Craiglockhart (an institution for miltary personnel suffering from shellshock) in `Regeneration', and moving first to England (`The Eye In The Door') and then to the front in France ('The Ghost Road') this is an excellent look at the impact of that war upon the individual. The series is based on historical meetings between W.H. Rivers (anthropologist, psychologist and childhood acquaintance of Lewis Carroll), Siegfried Sassoon (British poet) and Wilfred Owen (poet, killed shortly before the end of the war in 1918) and comes complete with historical notes at the end of each volume and further recommended reading about the people involved.

Barker is a fascinating writer with an obvious interest in the way that the human mind works, and particularly how it reacts to trauma. Some of the descriptions of the breakdowns that individuals suffer, and the incidents that cause them, are horrific and make this (at least in my mind) anti-war literature. Having said that, each of the major characters, both real and fictional, possess a longing to be part of the war even though some have already experienced the horror of being there. I was constantly trying to reassess my own viewpoints in the light of such responses.

The only real disappointment I felt concerned some of the more graphic descriptions of sex (both homosexual and heterosexual) which illustrated characters responses to events, but occasionally struck me as gratuitous in their detail. Having said that, if you are interested in reading `The Ghost Road' because of it's status as a Booker Prize winner, then I definitely recommend reading it in this format, with the other books in the series.

Throughout THE REGENERATION TRILOGY Barker does a phenomenal job of detailing the psychological consequences of trench warfare during the Great War. Set in London, Scotland, and France, the three volumes focus on the principle characters of Prior, Sassoon, Owens, and the renowned Dr. Rivers. Both their personal relationships with each other and with the First World War are examined. The reader is provided a glimpse into the terrible conditions of trench fighting, and how the medical establishment viewed shell-shock as a medical diagnosis and how it was treated. Through the poetry of Owen, Sassoon, etc, the world can begin to understand the personal horrors they have witnessed of a war that many soldiers did not understand. Based loosely on historical events and characters, Barker has created a perspective of modern warfare that does not contain the quintessential happy ending.

I believe each volume of the Regeneration Trilogy should be read in chronological order (REGENERATION, THE EYE IN THE DOOR, AND THE GHOST ROAD) to fully appreciate the merits of each volume. Although the plot is re-summarized at the beginning of each book, the main characters are continually being developed throughout. I just finished reading GHOST ROAD, and I have to admit that it's not my favorite of the three. I don't understand how this volume was awarded the Booker Prize when I believe REGENERATION is the strongest of the bunch. I also enjoyed THE EYE IN THE DOOR because of the exploration of societal issues during The First War, especially scape-goating of homosexuals and pacifists.

Overall, this trilogy is a wonderful glimpse into the atmosphere of Britain during the First World War.

Just finished the final volume of this excellent trilogy . I can't help but think the books should not be sold seperately because they do build one upon the other and if you read one on it's own you might just shrug your shoulders and move on. Also I can't agree with many of the reviewers that 'Ghost road' is the weakest of the bunch .I found it a very moving finale with the edition of Dr Rivers pre war African experiences giving a necessary twist to what could be a rather over familiar ending. The other thing I felt about the Regeneration trilogy is that some of the writing cries out to be translated into if not film, then at least a tv miniseries ........but billy priors graphically portrayed bisexuality probably makes that unlikely . Shame.

The Regeneration Trilogy is both wonderful and disappointing, an odd combination of characteristics for a set of novels, but then the First World War itself was characterized by heroic exhileration and utter dispair, by encrusted tradition and unanticipated revolution, by invention and backwardness.

Ms Barker takes us to an institution, a quiet and somewhat remote place, seemingly safe from the savagery of the Western Front, where damaged men are sent in hopes of recovery. She quickly has us involved in several fascinating characters, the full extent of whose experiences she only gradually reveals. Most interestingly, the characters of the men themselves are only gradually revealed, as often to our horror as satisfaction.

After reading the first volume, I could hardly wait for the second. It was the third volume I found disappointing. The disappointment comes through what she does with characters we have become intensely interested in, but I'll not reveal any details and leave it to new readers to see whether they agree.

The characterizations of the first two volumes are wonderful (although I am not a great fan of mixing real people in with fictional characters, the practice does not feature too heavily), and Ms. Barker gives us a remarkable sense of what that terrible war meant, particularly in ordinary lives on the home front.

Ms. Barker's trilogy is highly recommended for those interested in history, students of human psychology, and those who enjoy good writing and a gripping story.

Several years ago a friend recommended Regeneration; after reading it I immediately read the second two books in the trilogy. The story so moved me that I began reading all the published work of Sassoon, Owen and Brooke. After the beginning of the Iraq war, I was asked to participate in an arts project begun in my state (Wisconsin) called "Epidemic Peace Imagery." A friend who is a textile artist and I created a collage of images and words. Sassoon's declaration is central, and we incorporated old photographs taken by soldiers in France in WWI. The EPI exhibit has traveled for nearly three years now. Pat Barker's books were the stimulus for our contribution.

I think Regeneration is one of the great novels of the 20th century. Its fictional recreation of historic events and people, brilliantly imagined, and its portrayal of the moral complexity facing the characters, are both extraordinary. Rivers gradually realizes that his job is to make officers well enough to go back to a morally bankrupt struggle. Sassoon decides that even though he decries the war and its senseless slaughter, he must go back to his men at the front. The themes are grand but made human by the wonderful characters. And the little touches are so powerful, as when a pretty girl walks into a ward of dreadfully wounded soldiers and is astonished by her impact. The whole trilogy is terrific, but the first volume, above all, is a true classic.

I do not believe that E.Gyurisin, whoever it may be, understands either characterisation, the reality of WW1, historical fiction,reality, or the basis of humanity.
This trilogy is at turns illuminating, harrowing, appalling, but suffers none of the defects levelled at it in this risible "review".
The novel has moved on and if one still required plonking exposition which expected that the reader would barely be able to join the dots in their work book then one should take note of this illiterate review. If not, buy this book, risk being stretched and discover the realities of the effects of war and discover the nature of heroism in extremis.