I was well into my thirties by the time I truly discovered the horror and impact of World War I. A pointless conflict catalyzed by royal feuding and overconfident generals, it in no way deserves the moniker “The Great War”, and definitely shouldn’t be reduced to a footnote in the leadup to its more illustrious brother. But, like the Civil War, once you get hooked, you’re hooked. Accompanying the best of the history books (Barbara Tuchman’s superb The Guns of August was my entry point) was Pat Barker’s fictional Regeneration trilogy: Regeneration (1991), The Eye in the Door (1993), and The Ghost Road (1995). Sometimes when I read or watch a movie about war, the glorification of it compels me to think, Sign me up!, and I know that if a book or movie makes me want to go to war, then the book or movie probably wasn’t realistic enough (like Band of Brothers, both the book and the miniseries). After reading Pat Barker, however, my thoughts were more, Thank goodness I haven’t had to be a part of something like that, a testament to the realism of the trauma that Barker depicts. Much of her other work is worth checking out too.
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