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Pat Barker can add another success with her new novel Life Class. Her beautiful writing skills combined with well defined characters makes this a wonderful read. Barker reminds us of the harsh realities of war and it's effect on an entire generation robbed of it's innocence.

I was sadly disappointed to find that this book was not compelling at all. While the writing style and composition were excellent, the characters were shallow and lackluster. I found I cared little what choices they were going to make, nor did I feel a sense of tragedy or horror at the atrocities of the war they were living through. The only thing that kept me reading the book was the composition and excellent descriptions from the author. This is not a book I would recommend to very many people.

I had great hope for this book given Pat Barker had won the Booker Prize and I quite enjoy works that deal with WWI. What a let down! I found Part One extremely hard to get through (and not very interesting) and the end very disappointing. The only decent part was the small middle section actually dealing with the war and it's impact on the character Paul. I did enjoy the letter writing and thought that it gave the story most of it's guts. Most of the characters were unappealing and uninteresting and the brutality of WWI and its affect on people was only delved into. I had expected so much more. I'm afraid I cannot recommend this book.

I have always been interested in World War I and its impact on humanity. Having not yet gotten around to reading Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy, I was interested in reading Life Class, which has the same subject, WWI.

I wasn’t disappointed. In detailed style, Ms Barker accurately manages to illuminate the stark contrast between war and peace and their effect on relationships. The book focuses on Paul Tarrant, Elinor Brooke and Kit Neville: how they meet at the Slade art school in London before the war begins, how they individually react to the war, and how the war ultimately changes the lives of each and their relationships with each other.
Ms Barker’s text is incisive. Whether depicting human emotion or realistic battle scenarios, whether those depictions are in third person or through the personal correspondence between Elinor and Paul while he is serving in Belgium, she does not fail to deliver. I was enthralled throughout and could not wait to get back to the latest on Paul, Elinor and Kit each evening.

Life Class is timeless. Its occurrences and relationships could happen in any conflict, including those today in Afghanistan and Iraq. I highly recommend this book. It would do especially well for discussion in a book club.

I was delighted to be selected to review the new book by the English author Pat Baker. I had checked the book Life Class and emailed it off without a second thought of possibly being selected to write a review for the book. It was good fortune that the book arrived just as I was leaving for an extended trans-Atlantic cruise---it was an ideal setting to be introduced to an author who was unknown to me. Cruising the seas, allowed me time to devote my undivided attention meeting the life-like fictional characters…Paul and Elinor. I chose the book because of my love for military history and my previous work in the fields of art and medicine. This book captured all three. Although the book was not lengthy---only 248 pages---Ms. Baker was able to weave together real life characters (Mr. Tonks) and fictional ones which gave the reader a wonderful and accurate representation of the upheaval and trauma felt by all in any war----past or present.

The reader will either love or hate the characters-----I came to dislike Elinor…..I painted her as self-centered. Even though the book was short, the characters were, for the most part, multilayered and Ms. Baker was able to capture British society during the WW I . She employed the dry wit of the British that can bring a smile even in a war setting. Her trauma scenes were accurate and the conversations that took place in these settings, although morbid, is the type of humor I have personally witnessed. It is the type of humor that keeps one working and sane. Though sparse and selective in her use of prose, the author was able to paint a vivid picture that made the reader part of the scene. At the end of the book I still had questions about Paul that needed answering - I answered these with a slower and more leisurely reading (it was just as great the second reading). I believe Life Class would be a wonderful book club selection that would lend itself to a lively debate. After reading this one book, I will be sure to search out and read other books by Pat Baker. (Do research Mr Tonks - he was a very interesting man.)

Pat Barker's new novel is as condensed and impressionistic as her Regeneration trilogy is lengthy and detailed. In fact, it could be a section of a larger work as the reader is given glimpses of the lives of its characters as they are derailed from expected paths by the great war with their futures left unresolved. As a fan of Barker, I very much enjoyed this slim novel and recommend it to those who have enjoyed the trilogy as well as those who have read Ian McEwan's Atonementand On Chesil Beach with pleasure.

Woodrow Wilson’s “war to end all wars” certainly did not. At best, WWI set the stage for introspection into the consequences of unbridled cruelty in the name of peace. As Pat Barker illustrates in Life Class, artists can reflect this anomaly through their passion. Yet what they commit to sketch pad or easel might not truly reflect the artist in real life. Barker spends almost too much time with the self-indulgent life of her characters in their pre-war existence. Abruptly, reality interrupts their angst and pettiness, forever. Life Class is a relatively quick read with lingering effect. If you want to contemplate the futility of war, the meaning of love and the value of art, Life Class is a good place to start.

I've wanted to read the acclaimed Pat Barker for years, so I was very much looking forward to reading Life Class. What a disappointment!
It starts out slowly, focusing way too much on one character who soon disappears, so what was the point? Reading this was such a chore, I wanted to give up, but I persevered.

Part Two took a dramatic change for the better - the characters became much more interesting, as did the action, so I was changing my mind about the book. Until the end, that is. I can't remember the last time I was so dissatisfied with a book ending, and I was enraged by the shallowness of one of the main characters. The book is well written and historically interesting, but I can't think of one person I'd recommend it to.