Pat Barker Regeneration

Fay Weldon called Regeneration "wonderful and terrifying." The London Sunday Times called it "intense and subtle." Barbara Bishop Sand, psychologist and former Peace Corps member, calls it a beautiful novel. "It is based on the true life of a well-known psychiatrist who worked with World War I soldiers who were victims of shell shock; he helped them to learn how to live life as opposed to living death."

The second chapter of Regeneration begins,
Light from the window behind Rivers’s desk fell directly on to Sassoon’s face. Pale skin, purple shadows under the eyes. Apart from that, no obvious signs of nervous disorder. No twitches, jerks, blinks, no repeated ducking to avoid a long-exploded shell. His hands, doing complicated things with cup, saucer, plate, sandwiches, cake, sugar tongs and spoon, were perfectly steady. Rivers raised his own cup to his lips and smiled. One of the nice things about serving afternoon tea to newly arrived patients was that it made so many neurological tests redundant.

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