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What are readers saying about Life Class: A Novel?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-10 02:21:53.
(Language: English)
  
Pat Barker returns to World War One for this tale of anguished artists struggling to deal with the conflict. Despite the lofty themes and description of some of the horrors of war, the book has a lightweight feel with a focus on a romantic triangle. The writing, however, is fresh, fluid and sweeps the reader along, leaving one wanting more.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-17 02:05:20.
(Language: English)
A gripping story well told.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-13 07:17:02.
(Language: English)
I found in interesting but there seemed to be no point. It's like - okay, interesting but what's the point in reading this? Mediocre at best really.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-20 01:50:31.
(Language: English)
Quite a good read but highly episodic - where's the unifying theme? I couldn't see the point of it at all.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-13 01:37:57.
(Language: English)
Good for the first half, but when it (all too immediately) enters into the war scenario, it becomes boring and incredibly predictable.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-07 01:54:02.
(Language: English)
I was expecting more out of this. It seemed more like a re-hash of the Regeneration trilogy with characters who weren't quite as interesting. Too bad.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-03 11:15:16.
(Language: English)
Meh. I pick up her new books because of the Regeneration trilogy, and nothing comes close to matching how great they were.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-29 10:45:06.
(Language: English)
A powerful illustration of how WWI altered the lives of these London art students whose concerns transition from the usual (love triangles, sex, career choices) to the horrifying. Barker is a strong historical novelist whose research shows.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-16 01:52:47.
(Language: English)
Good work from Ms Barker. Not quite as great as the Regeneration Trilogy but a solid effort.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-17 08:21:08.
(Language: English)
meh, Regeneration was better. But, hey, Augustus Johns makes an appearance and I like the references to the Vorticist and Bloomsbury (my British art history heart bleeds).
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-02 03:06:52.
(Language: English)
Easy to read and I was instantly gripped.At first I liked Eleanor but as the book progressed I started to feel she was insipid…going on about having a frivolous life, making excuses but still doing it…I felt she could have used her art towards the war effort as in propaganda Posters and or facial drawings like Tanks…What was the point of Teresa…I guess that was to show that perhaps the war did actually benefit someone. With the conventient removal of her abusive husband.Baker may have started the idea of this story with the end result in mind, with the affected artists and artist’s model and therefore invented a beginning for them. I did not like the book changing into two halves and becoming letters – a cope out….Who was the book about – all of them: Paul, Eleanor, Tessa, Kit, Lewis…?Did it have a resolution or ending, I felt it just floated off with everyone carrying on with life whether or not the war had affected them…but then we actually arrived in the same way as a slice of time in the lives of these people.Had Paul “found something to say” after the war.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-04 12:36:23.
(Language: English)
A bit disappointing, certainly not to live up to the Regeneration trilogy's impact; I found some of the characters quite two-dimensional where they could've done with a bit of 'fleshing out' and the plot and action rushed and skimpy in places.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-10 12:19:05.
(Language: English)
A small warning to those who like me enjoyed the Regeneration trilogy (especially The Eye in the Door) - this one is a stinker. Including a trip to a country fair, class remarks/issues, the non-functioning marriages of higher class 50-plussers, a gay brother studying for an exam with his "friend", unmotivated, unbalanced and completely flat switches of narrator perspectives and letters between lovers which lack any kind of insight into the personalities the author herself created. I still read it until the end but primarily because they don't have sex until the 3/4 of the story and then there are some grippling descriptions of the Ypres bombardements which keep you going.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-08 02:07:18.
(Language: English)
dull
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-26 01:26:58.
(Language: English)
Another beautifully realised study of the effects of war on ordinary people and their relationships. Barker's ability to articulate the unsaid is unsurpassed.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-09 10:17:41.
(Language: English)
Not as good as the Regeneration trilogy, but I finished it wanting more.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-02 08:31:52.
(Language: English)
The prose is clean and the story is interesting in spots, but this novel would have benefitted from an extra hundred pages or so. The majority of characters are left by the wayside and do not do enough to advance the two central figures. The most compelling aspect of the book comes in the second half, where we see the effects of the war on the people who lived through it, as well as on the people who pretended it wasn't happening. The disintegration and discovery of human relationships is exceptionally well written, but is hard to find as a theme at first.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-06 03:45:11.
(Language: English)
absolutely hated it! I never got into the characters, who were all pretty cold and boring. Overall, a very disappointing novel. disapointing
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-04 01:07:14.
(Language: English)
Another great novel from Pat Barker. Atmospheric and superbly descriptive, it is another classic text about the forgotten people of the First World War.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-05 06:32:30.
(Language: English)
Very well written - great descriptions without going too Hemingway about the whole thing
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-16 12:09:59.
(Language: English)
Disappointing compared to her WWI triology, but enjoyable.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-10 11:49:56.
(Language: English)
Pat Barker's latest novel focusing on World War I and its impact in Britian. This story, elucidates the horror of war on the human body. The best parts of the book take place in Belgium where the male character works first in the hospital and then as an ambulance driver.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-26 08:07:27.
(Language: English)
Haunting.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-23 02:43:28.
(Language: English)
Beautiful writing in parts, but strangeky shapeless book. It left me feeling I wasn;t really sure why it had been written.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-29 06:13:18.
(Language: English)
Pat Barker is the sovereign of restraint. Her latest novel is a vivid book about artists and lovers in a time of war. Set in the build-up to, and early years of, World War 1, "Life Class" describes the intriguing characters of Paul, Elinor and Kit, students at the Slade School of Fine Art in central London. Barker explores the question asked by artists, writers and many creative workers: "how do I justify the interior life of creative expression when the exterior world is in turmoil and demanding of my participation?" Paul resolves this, in the first instance, by becoming a volunteer ambulance driver in Belgium. He returns to his creative expression, but only after encountering the awfulness of war and the tenacious compassion of his Quaker colleague, Lewis. Elinor deals with her wartime torment by supporting her friend, Catherine, whose German ancestry is unacceptable in English society. Kit is the least integrated of the three, turning his demons into artistic brilliance but losing sight of his soul permanently. The descriptions of London cafes, English country houses and the surreal and sacred wartime images of Ypres, in Belgium, are like detailed paintings. But Barker keeps the story going, not over-indulging her freakish ability to capture images in a few words. This is a fine book, which explains so many things about war, art and the objects of people's affections.
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