Product Description

'"The Ghost Road" is a startlingly good novel ...With the other two volumes of the trilogy, it forms one of the richest and most rewarding works of fiction of recent times. Intricately plotted, beautifully written, skilfully assembled, tender, horrifying and funny, it lives on in the imagination, like the war it so imaginatively and so intelligently explores' - "Times Literary Supplement".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240614 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Pat Barker was born in 1943 and educated at LSE. She has published several novels including her highly acclaimed Regeneration Trilogy. The Eye in the Door was winner of the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize, and The Ghost Road, winner of the 1995 Booker Prize for Fiction. Pat Barker is married and lives in Durham.

Customer Reviews

A huge, limitless book
The field of First World War novels may be a crowded one, but in 'The Ghost Road', Pat Barker is by no means overshadowed. Her subtle blending of fact and fiction allows her to convey every aspect of the war effectively from two perspectives: the psychological impact of it on those deeply involved, and wider view: how it affected social and mental barriers, inciting probing questions into the value of our own morality.

On the surface, we are presented with a seemingly straightforward negative account of the war, most prolifically in its impact on the two central characters, Prior and Rivers, who serve as the focus for the narrative throughout the book (the latter stages even being told directly from Prior's diary entries). However, upon a deeper reading, endless social judgements emerge, directed against every aspect of our society, along with predictable passes at the class system, which allowed the upper classes, and in particular, aristocratic army generals to distance themseves from the suffering endured by the men. Barker cleverly utilises a complex narrative which in itself would satisfy a reader, and saturates it with ambiguous, apparently descriptive yet deeply symbolic references, to the deepest political and philosophical issues.

Despite these being perhaps cliched themes, especially so considering the context, they are presented in such a way that makes them have a powerful impact on the reader, the sustained flatly harrowing tone, one of almost casual sadism, being as intriguing as it is grotesque. The opening line: 'In deck chairs all along the front the bald pink knees of Bradford businessmen nuzzled the sun' demonstrates this, the symbolism inherent here indicative of the way Barker starts as she means to go on. The close examination by a barbaric tribe of head hunters on a remote island, however, is perhaps the strongest and most overtly cynical judgement of the British system during the war: the way in which, in essence, there is no rational reasoning to explain the concept of rank. War as a setting is the opportunity Barker seizes with both hands to communicate her feelings about such matters, being in many ways the most extreme of human pursuits, and very widely understood as an institution, Barker perhaps manipulating the sensitivity surrounding it to drive her own ideas home. The result is that they are doubly effective.

This is not to suggest that Barker's narrative be devoid of successful characters: Prior and Rivers, the focal points throughout the book, are both richly constructed, with many delving psychological examinations. The development of Prior's character as he comes closer to first-hand conflict, in particular, serves to supply the reader with the personal aspect of the war, as well as being an enlightening and thought-provoking analysis of the human psyche. His release of repressed sexual feeling shortly before an assault on a German position a reflection, perhaps, of human capability and desires which, when faced with the inevitability of death, when life is measured and displayed, find openings in the calamity of mind.

Should be read in context
It is important to read the first two books of the Regeneration trilogy before starting on The Ghost Road. The character of Prior has to be one of the most attractive in modern fiction, whilst at the same time being more anti-hero than hero, but it is his development through the series that is most interesting. If you don't cry buckets at the end, you have no feelings.

Raises Disturbing Questions about the Nature of Humanity
Please do not read The Ghost Road before reading Regeneration and The Eye in the Door (the order intended by the author). As brilliant as The Ghost Road is, its message will hit you harder if you have read the other books first and anticipated what Pat Barker's final vision of humanity would be.

Without revealing any spoilers, The Ghost Road is the most nuanced novel about war that I've ever read. Most war-related books take one of two basic themes: Either war is too awful to be tolerated and needs to be abolished . . . or human nobility is expressed within war, but war itself is an evil event with people being destroyed by incompetent leaders. You'll find a different message here, one implied by a combination of observations about a tribe of head hunters and by the behavior of Billy Prior, one of the primary characters in the three books. I leave it to you to find out what this nuanced message is . . . but I believe it will probably surprise and enlighten you.

By narrowing down the focus onto just two of the continuing characters of the trilogy, Dr. William Rivers and Lieutenant Billy Prior, The Ghost Road has an intensity and power that I didn't observe in the prior two books. Clearly, The Ghost Road is a step above those excellent novels.

I am often left wondering why books that win prestigious prizes (like the 1995 Booker Prize . . . awarded to The Ghost Road) did so. I have no doubt that this award was well earned.

Life can be an ironic event, punctuated by moments of sublime joy. I have seldom read a novel that captured those perspectives as well as The Ghost Road does.

Brava, Ms. Barker!