War is not my usual reading topic but the characters were so interesting. I was unfamiliar with the term "neurasthenia" but consider it the equivalent of PTSD or shellshock. There are wonderful descriptive detail: "the silvery sound of shaken wheat, the shimmer of light on the stalks" (p.6) when passing a windblown wheat field.
[return]It took me a couple weeks to read because I would stop to take in the message, to think about the implications. Barker isn't just writing about soldiering, but also about how our social customs and expectations affect us, and she uses Rivers' experiences as an anthropologist as comparative alternative. Can men be nurturing or express tenderness without being considered deviant (includes homosexual in that era)? The biblical story of Abraham sacrificing his son as the basis for patriarchal (Euro-American) societies which imply "If you, who are young and weak, will obey me, who am old and weak, even to the extent of being prepared to sacrifice your life, then in the course of time you will peacefully inherit, and be a ble to exact the same obedience from your sons" (p.149). "The process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay" as the caterpillar in its chrysalis (p.184). The difference in symptoms of the emotional conflict or protest of what they are required to do between those who have power (i.e. upper class officers=stuttering, nightmares, tremors, memory lapses) and those who don't (working class=paralysis, mutism). The similarities of stress symptoms between the soldiers and low-income women: "The look of people who are totally responsible for lives they have no power to save" (p.107). The psychiatric treatment of PTSD in soldiers as really a silencing of them as humans, controlling people not to keep them from engaging in self-destructive behavior but allowing them to resume fighting which is positively suicidal (p.238).
[return]I assumed from the blurb that Barker wanted to protest current wars but chose to clothe this perspective in the WWI era to make the topic more universal. And then I found out after reading the book that Siegfried Sassoon was a real person. Still, it does allow us the hindsight of knowing the WWII consequence of this trying to "shell the militarism out of the Hun". This turns out not to be a pacifist book so much as one which asks us to examine whether the purpose for any particular war is worth the cost.
[return]Unrelated to the main themes, I wondered if Sassoon's advice to Own on writing poetry, and selection of words was advice this author used as her own guide. It is quite admirable writing. ( )

I read my last book unusually slowly, which perhaps explains why I got through ‘Regeneration’ in a few hours straight. I chose to read it after coming across a recommendation online; apparently it deals with issues of class better than Faulks’ [b:Birdsong|6259|Birdsong|Sebastian Faulks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349952101s/6259.jpg|1093016] (which I intend to read at some point). It certainly struck me as a profoundly humane, sensitively written book. The story takes place in a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers during the First World War. The reader mainly experiences the recovery of various patients through the eyes of Doctor Rivers, a wonderfully thoughtful and sympathetic character and very effective psychiatrist. Amongst his patients is Siegfried Sassoon, who has been committed to the institution after very publicly questioning the morality of the war. Sassoon’s dilemma is played out carefully and very effectively.

Although this novel does not induce the same sense of utter devastation as [b:All Quiet on the Western Front|355697|All Quiet on the Western Front|Erich Maria Remarque|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441227765s/355697.jpg|2662852], one of the most upsetting novels I’ve ever read, it is still very moving and powerful. None of it actually takes place at the front, instead examining the terrible aftermath of war upon the surviving soldiers. Rivers contemplates the linked physical and psychological toll on individuals and a generation collectively, in a nuanced and beautifully articulated manner. Although I liked the portrayal of the war poets and other patients, Rivers was the heart and soul of the book. Whilst [b:All Quiet on the Western Front|355697|All Quiet on the Western Front|Erich Maria Remarque|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441227765s/355697.jpg|2662852] confronts you with the death toll of the war, 'Regeneration' shows you the fate of the survivors through the eyes of those who care for them.

This is a truly wonderful historical novel and I definitely intend to read the other two in the trilogy. ( )

Not the most entertaining book I've read, and it was hard not to compare it to "All Quiet on the Western Front" (which might not be entirely fair) but it was thought provoking. It brought up points that I hadn't seen discussed before, or read about, with regards to the psychological impact of World War I. I read some of Sassoon's poetry in high school and this book did provide something of an insight (though speculative) into his state of mind. In that context I found it a worthwhile read. ( )

Couldn't read this novel. Not my type of book. Gave up in the 2nd chapter

Can I say I enjoyed this book? That sounds a bit wrong, given the subject matter. Nevertheless, I found it compelling and moving. The prose is lucid and never wasteful - there's barely a foot put wrong in the whole novel. The characters are wonderful - likeable and comprehensible in a way that isn't easy for people living in an incomprehensible time. Part of the genius of the plot, I think, is that Barker realises there's no point in writing about the war, both because it's already been done and because it doesn't necessarily help to bring the reader any closer to understanding it. Instead, the plot revolves around reactions to the war, or in fact the reactions of a doctor to the reactions of the officers to their experiences in the war. Seeing at such a remove, like observing the transit of Venus through a pinhole camera, I felt as a reader I could get closer to seeing the truth than I ever could by staring at the sun and reading directly about the horror.

I read this at university, for one of my courses, so technically this is a reread, but books read for class don't count, I think, and although the tone and the character of Rivers were familiar, it was otherwise like reading something for the first time. ( )