Bibliography
Aug. 21st, 2012 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyRegeneration - Pat Barker
This is the first of a trilogy about the First World War. The book focuses on a short period in the life of Siegfried Sassoon, the war poet - it's based on historical details, but the novel is mainly fictional. Sassoon spent some months in the Craiglockhart War Hospital after a declaration of pacifism, where he came under the care of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers and also met Wilfred Owen, who was a patient at the same time. These are the bones of truth; Barker's genius is fleshing out the relationships between the men.
Sassoon and Rivers are on their own individual journeys - Sassoon through the process of accceptance and defiance which will eventually allow him to go back to the Front as an officer, despite his continued belief that Britain should seek a negotiated peace with Germany; Rivers through the gradual realisation that Sassoon's questions have made his own belief in what he is doing in sending men back to the front perilously tenuous. The psychology is delicately but convincingly drawn; the moral and ethical questions are brought effectively to the front of the story without the thump of Moral Message, if that makes sense.
There's also an interesting episode at the end of the book when Rivers visits a London hospital where Dr. Yealland treats the same sorts of illness that turn up at Craiglockhart in a very different way. Where Craiglockhart works with patience, long time periods, gentleness and what (for want of a better term) I'd call talk therapy, Yealland works with electric shocks. It's absolutely hideous - worse, it's hideous and it produces results. Rivers has to confront the fact that while he thinks Yealland's methods are despicable, they both do the same thing - get men back into condition to return to the front. And if that's ultimately the case, who is he to judge the methods?
Regeneration is a surprisingly delicate book, all things considered. It's slender, carefully written, sparing with exposition but picks its scenes carefully. It offers moral meditation with a light touch, or as light as could be expected under the circumstances. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
This is the first of a trilogy about the First World War. The book focuses on a short period in the life of Siegfried Sassoon, the war poet - it's based on historical details, but the novel is mainly fictional. Sassoon spent some months in the Craiglockhart War Hospital after a declaration of pacifism, where he came under the care of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers and also met Wilfred Owen, who was a patient at the same time. These are the bones of truth; Barker's genius is fleshing out the relationships between the men.
Sassoon and Rivers are on their own individual journeys - Sassoon through the process of accceptance and defiance which will eventually allow him to go back to the Front as an officer, despite his continued belief that Britain should seek a negotiated peace with Germany; Rivers through the gradual realisation that Sassoon's questions have made his own belief in what he is doing in sending men back to the front perilously tenuous. The psychology is delicately but convincingly drawn; the moral and ethical questions are brought effectively to the front of the story without the thump of Moral Message, if that makes sense.
There's also an interesting episode at the end of the book when Rivers visits a London hospital where Dr. Yealland treats the same sorts of illness that turn up at Craiglockhart in a very different way. Where Craiglockhart works with patience, long time periods, gentleness and what (for want of a better term) I'd call talk therapy, Yealland works with electric shocks. It's absolutely hideous - worse, it's hideous and it produces results. Rivers has to confront the fact that while he thinks Yealland's methods are despicable, they both do the same thing - get men back into condition to return to the front. And if that's ultimately the case, who is he to judge the methods?
Regeneration is a surprisingly delicate book, all things considered. It's slender, carefully written, sparing with exposition but picks its scenes carefully. It offers moral meditation with a light touch, or as light as could be expected under the circumstances. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-08-21 06:22 pm (UTC)Goodness, I loved that book.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-22 06:29 am (UTC)Really?! I never knew that.
(I also loved the book, and indeed the complete trilogy.)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-24 02:23 am (UTC)Despite the title, the movie actually takes bits and pieces from the whole trilogy. It's only weird if you watch it first and then read the books because the first book just seems to end way too early compared to the movie.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-24 09:47 am (UTC)