What value does art have when weighed against human suffering? This is just one of the questions called to mind when reading Barker's impressive novel, which sweeps us away from the rarefied world of London's Slade school of art, alive with the bohemian chatter of bright young things, and plunges us into the horrors of the western front in 1914. It is at the Slade that a romantic triangle is forged between handsome, apathetic Paul, beautiful aesthete Elinor and talented painter Kit. The author vigilantly observes the vicissitudes in the trio's relationships and the way they perceive their vocations, and also illustrates how both love and art are dramatically reshaped by war. This is brought sharply into focus during the powerful second half of the book, when Paul joins the Red Cross and witnesses a Bosch-like vision of hell in the abattoir of Ypres. Unlike Elinor, who blots out the conflict from her life and portraits, the hitherto artistically indifferent Paul emerges from the inferno determined to translate his experience to canvas. While Barker's acclaimed trilogy of first-world-war novels demonstrated that she has few equals when it comes to evoking the carnage of the battlefield, here the visceral immediacy and raw authenticity of her descriptions have the adverse ripple effect of making earlier sections of the narrative appear somewhat bloodless and wanting for the same ring of truth. Given the uniformly high quality of the writing, though, it's a minor cavil, and one unlikely to spoil your enjoyment of an admirably ambitious work of fiction

Life Class by Pat Barker
Penguin £7.99

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