War Talk

by Pat Barker

Taken from Pat Barker's celebrated Regeneration, this extract charts two encounters in a time of war the developing friendship of Wilfed Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and the unexpected romance of Billy Prior and Sarah Lumb.

Genres: Fiction

58 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Pat Barker is an English writer known for her fiction exploring themes of memory, trauma, and survival. She gained prominence with Union Street (1982), a stark portrayal of working-class women's lives, and later achieved critical acclaim with the Regeneration Trilogy (1991–1995), a series blending history and fiction to examine the psychological impact of World War I. The final book, The Ghost Road (1995), won the Booker Prize. In recent years, she has turned to retelling classical myths from a female perspective, beginning with The Silence of the Girls (2018). Barker's work is widely recognized for its direct and unflinching storytelling.

Reviews

[Tony Lawrence]

(retrospective review c.2008)

And so, I come to the end of this brilliant series, spread over nearly 3 years; not all gems, but constantly different!

I think I put War Talk off until late because I've read Regeneration, but it was still good to revisit Seigfried Sassoon encarcerated in Craiglockhart officer's asylum for his entirely rational views on fighting in a no-win war of constant nullifying stupidity, death and destruction. I read this alongside Sassonn's War Poems which added a bit of extra detail and colour. Even in this 50+ page extract there are some great insights by Dr Rivers, the start of a growing friendship between SS and Wilfred Owen, and glimpses into the life of troubled Billy Prior.

One particular insight [by Rivers] draws parallels between men being drawn to the manly adventure of war, but ending up more 'female' in passive domesticity ... and why was the army 'mobilised' to sit idly in trenches?

This is the final version of a couplet that Sassoon was helping Owen to re-write, from Anthem for Doomed Youth

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstruous anger of the guns."

[Coenraad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually avoid reading about war: life is tough enough! But this exerpt from Pat Barker's novel Regeneration will inspire me to make an exception. Her writing and characterization provide trenchant insight into people and the devastation of war, even far from the trenches of the First World War.

In a hospital in Scotland, psychologist dr William Rivers has a paradoxical task: he has to cure soldiers, especially officers, of their shell shock (in today's terms they suffer from trauma) to enable them to return to the trenches. Some of his patients will be familiar to poetry readers: Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The exerpt introduces readers also to Billy Prior.

Fortunately the whole Regeneration trilogy, of which the third part, The ghost road, won the Booker Prize in 1995, stands on my bookshelf, patiently awaiting attention. After this exerpt, the wait may not be long!

Pat Barker se skryfwerk en karakterisering in hierdie kort uittreksel sal my oortuig om my weerstand teen oorlogfiksie op te hef sodat ek haar hoogaangeskrewe trilogie kan deurwerk. Afrikaanse lesers sal dit ook interessant vind dat die sielkundige in wie se werk Susan Nell in Kamphoer belangstel, dr William Rivers, die sentrale karakter in Barker se verhaal is.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taking in a meeting between the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owens, the adventures of a shell shocked young man called Prior, the war time atmosphere of Edinburgh, a nightmarish night filled with ghosts of dead comrades, and flashbacks of the horrors of the trenches, "War Talk" is an extract from Pat Barker's excellent novel "Regeneration", the first book in a trilogy.

Having only read the Booker winning "The Ghost Road" and absolutely loved it, I wasn't sure if it was worth going back and reading the first two books. Now I've read "War Talk" and fallen once more for Barker's utterly brilliant prose and sharpness of characters, I will definitely go back and read "Regeneration" and "The Eye in the Door".

"War Talk" is a wonderful introduction to a tremendous series of books produced by a master writer. Highly recommended.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

"War Talk" is an extract from Pat Barker's "Regeneration", the first installement in a trilogy. This particular extract included the first meeting between Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, a writer Owen particularly admired, in a hospital for those wounded at the Front; Craiglockhart. It was thoroughly well written, and I appreciated it all the more, having studied a coupld of Wilfred Owen's poems in the past few months.
I already own "Regeneration", but haven't yet gottent to it, so I was particularly pleased to receive this little book as a gift from my English teacher. I hope that I will soon have the pleasure of reading more of Barker's fabulous writing.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extract from Regeneration part of Pat Barker's trilogy that culminated in the Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road gives a good account of the brutality of the Great War. A good advert to make me look into reading the whole trilogy.

[Reena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short and sharp look at some of the mental anguish WWI soldiers suffered. Definitely interested in reading Regeneration, where this excerpt is from and the rest of the trilogy.