The Regeneration Trilogy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.