917. Another World

Another World
Pat Barker
1998
Around 280 pages

Pat Barker is another overrepresented novelist on this List, and I could have done without this one. That being said, it wasn't a terrible read, so we'll give it a pass.

Nick's grandfather Geordie is dying, which causes him to relive painful memories. Pat Barker really likes exploring PTSD, unfortunately the characters were a lot less likable than they were in her Regeneration series.

Anytime an author is dwelling on memories as a theme, the structure is going to be disjointed and muddled, which works better in some novels than others. Here I didn't vibe with it, and I just wanted to get to the end so I would be done with these characters.

As a side note, is the List determined to try to make me asexual with its depictions of intercourse? 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

In 2000, she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

UP NEXT: Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis

899. The Ghost Road

The Ghost Road
Pat Barker
1995
Around 290 pages

We come to the third novel in the Regeneration trilogy, having only read the first entry in the series. I'm obsessive enough that I have to finish this List, but not obsessive enough that I have to read The Eye in the Door to fill in the gaps. Maybe I'm relaxing in my old age. Also, I didn't really like this much.

Our main characters this time are Billy Prior and the real life psychoanalyst William Rivers. Prior is "cured" of shell shock but not really of course, and engages in a risky lifestyle, which concerns Rivers, who has a deep bond with his post war patients. 

As with our previous Barker work, it's interesting to explore how psychology was understood at the time, particularly in regards to PTSD. But once again, I didn't find the narrative too compelling. The ending was predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I had a hard time getting that invested in the characters' journeys with such an inevitable ending looming over the story. I guess that's part of the point, that the young men of this era were just doomed from the start.

So another one to throw in the middling pile, which seems to be our primary pile these days. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

In 2012, The Observer named the Regeneration Trilogy as one of "The 10 best historical novels".

Won the Booker Prize.

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834. Regeneration

Regeneration
Pat Barker
1991
Around 290 pages

Of course, war novels aren't fun to read, unless you are a middle-aged dad, but there's no denying the importance of these stories, so I won't complain about it. Too much.

The novel explores the experience of British army officers being treated for shell shock during World War I at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. The characters are based on historical individuals present at the hospital including poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, who pioneered treatments of post-traumatic stress disorder during and after World War I.

So heavy stuff, and I'm glad we got characters beyond the cookie cutter soldier types that usually populate wartime accounts like this. Naturally, the novel depicts graphic violence and upsetting scenes of death and destruction. Pat Barker was a little too much of a sentimental writer for me, but it's hard not to be sentimental when you are talking about wartime poets.

Moving, and encouraged me to do some background research on the real life characters here, who are certainly worthy of being memorialized in fiction. But not that much of a stand out writing wise.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a film in 1997.

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