Life Class by Pat Barker (ISBN:0307387801)

English (US)

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		Life Class
	
				(6 reviews)			
(68 Readers)

			Pat Barker		
	
In the spring of 1914, a group of students at the Slade School of Art have gathered for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant is easily distracted by an...more
 In the spring of 1914, a group of students at the Slade School of Art have gathered for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant is easily distracted by an intriguing fellow student, Elinor Brooke, but watches from afar when a well-known painter catches her eye. After World War I begins, Paul tends to the dying soldiers from the front line as a Belgian Red Cross volunteer, but the longer he remains, the greater the distance between him and home becomes. By the time he returns, Paul must confront not only the overwhelming, perhaps impossible challenge of how to express all that he has seen and experienced, but also the fact that life, and love, will never be the same for him again.   less

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Showing 7 of 7 reviews

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
I like it

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Well-written, but the author totally wussed out on the ending. And definitely took some weird tangents re stalking.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
I've just read some of the other reviews and have to admit if I'd read them first I wouldn't have read this book at all but as I didn't and I did, well I really enjoyed it.  I liked the way the author slipped real people into her story, the way she showed how people are affected differently by the same event(in this case the war).  I admit I couldn't understand how Elinor could completely ignore...more
 I've just read some of the other reviews and have to admit if I'd read them first I wouldn't have read this book at all but as I didn't and I did, well I really enjoyed it.  I liked the way the author slipped real people into her story, the way she showed how people are affected differently by the same event(in this case the war).  I admit I couldn't understand how Elinor could completely ignore the war!  I enjoyed the book (couldn't put it down towards the end), it didn't particularly leave me wanting to know what happened next like some books do but I do think that if I saw another Pat Barker book on the shelf I'd give it a go.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
expected more, characters are one dimensional, never really connected to them

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
What a piece of chintz. Okay, I'll admit some of the battle scenes and the descriptions of wartime London were well wrought and engaging but sheesh- it's SLOPPY. 
     Changing narrative styles a third of the way through, no development in many characters, too many'conveniences,' 
and worst of all - the characters' voices (vocabulary, rhetoric) became...more
 What a piece of chintz. Okay, I'll admit some of the battle scenes and the descriptions of wartime London were well wrought and engaging but sheesh- it's SLOPPY. 
     Changing narrative styles a third of the way through, no development in many characters, too many'conveniences,' 
and worst of all - the characters' voices (vocabulary, rhetoric) became interchangeable! 
      It was like a movie in which there were 5 great scenes out of twenty, 3 good actors out of 15, and in which the director cut out the scenes in which ramifications played out thereby limiting all significance of the events. 

PASS.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Ironic title, with the young people in the life drawing class at the Slade 'bullied' into engaging with WW1, as Elinor would have it. Wise thoughts on war and art, the place of art when the world turns ugly, love and relationships in a time of war and hate.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Pat Barker is a wonderful writer. I often pause at some of her well put phrases and marvel at her observational abilities. More importantly, her ability to put her observations on paper. Each of her books I have read tell a story about WWI from the perspective of individuals who were not soldiers, but played significant roles in the war: psychologists, "concies", painters, ambulance...more
 Pat Barker is a wonderful writer. I often pause at some of her well put phrases and marvel at her observational abilities. More importantly, her ability to put her observations on paper. Each of her books I have read tell a story about WWI from the perspective of individuals who were not soldiers, but played significant roles in the war: psychologists, "concies", painters, ambulance drivers and medical volunteers, unlike Birdsong (a fantastic book) that tells the stories from the soldier in the trench.   hide

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