Regeneration by Pat Barker

Regeneration (Regeneration, #1)

by Pat Barker

In 1917 Seigfried Sasson, noted poet and decorated war hero, publicly refused to continue serving as a British officer in World War I. His reason: The war was a senseless slaughter. He was officially classified "mentally unsound" and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital. There a brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. William Rivers, set about restoring Sassoon's "sanity" and sending him back to the trenches. This novel tells what happened as only a novel can. It is a war saga in which not a shot is fired. It is a story of a battle for a man's mind in which only the reader can decide who is the victor, who the vanquished, and who the victim. It is one of the most amazing feats of fiction of our time. "Regeneration" is the first novel in Pat Barker's acclaimed World War I trilogy, which continues with "The Eye in the Door" and culminates in the 1995 Booker Prize-winning "The Ghost Road."

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

4 of 5 stars

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Early treatment of PTSD, the electrical treatments were harrowing, this follows Siegfried Sassoon and the psychologist who treated him after he publishes his declaration of protest against the continuation of the war. Features several characters from history.

Not a bad one but the narrator didn't really gel with me.

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  • Started reading
  • 31 May, 2016: Finished reading
  • 31 May, 2016: Reviewed