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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Originally posted on Londiniumgirlbooks
I may have mention before(maybe only like 100 times), but I’m a huge history buff with a strong obsession with the Mid 19th century to the Present. I especially love the UK in the 1880s, 1890s, WWI, between wars era, and WWII. In one of my favorite English classes in college (20th Century Brit Lit), I was introduced to the WWI war novel Regeneration by Pat Barker. I loved that book and it is still one of my favorites today. I was excited when my professor told me Regeneration was the beginning of a trilogy, that there were two other novel, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, which won the Man Booker in 1995. I quickly added them to my To-Read List, but college got in the way, so I wasn’t able to read the next book until last year. I was still entranced by the story, so I ordered The Ghost Road for Christmas. I was not disappointed by this last installment.
If you like war fiction, you have to read this series. If you’re interested in the psychological development of the diagnosis of Shell Shock (PTSD), if you are interested in the War Poets, or in history in general, I recommend this book, this series, and this author wholeheartedly. The only reason I did not give The Ghost Road five stars is because it is not as good as Regeneration, IMHO, and some of the flash-back scenes with Dr. Rivers bored me. It is still an incredible novel, and worth the read.
Extra stuff: Wilfred Owen became a sort-of student( and rumored lover too) of poetry under Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart Hospital and wrote the majority of his poems in a one year period. He is now considered one of, if not the best, War Poet of WWI. Regeneration focuses on WO and SS’s rumored romantic relationship (which I totally believe in) if anyone wants more on that.
Just to rub salt in anyone’s who feels for these two wounds, according to Siegfried’s Journey, “After the Armistice, Sassoon waited in vain for word from Owen, only to be told of his death several months later. The loss grieved Sassoon greatly, and he was never ‘able to accept that disappearance philosophically”(Quote lifted from Wikipedia). EXCUSE ME WHILE I GRIMACE IN PAIN AND GO SHAKE MY FIST AT THE SKY.
I may have mention before(maybe only like 100 times), but I’m a huge history buff with a strong obsession with the Mid 19th century to the Present. I especially love the UK in the 1880s, 1890s, WWI, between wars era, and WWII. In one of my favorite English classes in college (20th Century Brit Lit), I was introduced to the WWI war novel Regeneration by Pat Barker. I loved that book and it is still one of my favorites today. I was excited when my professor told me Regeneration was the beginning of a trilogy, that there were two other novel, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, which won the Man Booker in 1995. I quickly added them to my To-Read List, but college got in the way, so I wasn’t able to read the next book until last year. I was still entranced by the story, so I ordered The Ghost Road for Christmas. I was not disappointed by this last installment.
If you like war fiction, you have to read this series. If you’re interested in the psychological development of the diagnosis of Shell Shock (PTSD), if you are interested in the War Poets, or in history in general, I recommend this book, this series, and this author wholeheartedly. The only reason I did not give The Ghost Road five stars is because it is not as good as Regeneration, IMHO, and some of the flash-back scenes with Dr. Rivers bored me. It is still an incredible novel, and worth the read.
Extra stuff: Wilfred Owen became a sort-of student( and rumored lover too) of poetry under Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart Hospital and wrote the majority of his poems in a one year period. He is now considered one of, if not the best, War Poet of WWI. Regeneration focuses on WO and SS’s rumored romantic relationship (which I totally believe in) if anyone wants more on that.
Just to rub salt in anyone’s who feels for these two wounds, according to Siegfried’s Journey, “After the Armistice, Sassoon waited in vain for word from Owen, only to be told of his death several months later. The loss grieved Sassoon greatly, and he was never ‘able to accept that disappearance philosophically”(Quote lifted from Wikipedia). EXCUSE ME WHILE I GRIMACE IN PAIN AND GO SHAKE MY FIST AT THE SKY.
The Regeneration Trilogy: I read these books in the late '90s, after Ghost Road was first published. I was in love with the British war poets of WWI at the time and this fit right in. I don't remember many details, but these books were great reads. Very athmospheric, accessible and captivating main characters, I suffered with them every step of the way.
P.S.: The movie is also very good.
P.S.: The movie is also very good.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this book. Barker is brilliant. Now for my mental health I need to not read about war or death for a good long while.
Sassoon survived. Owen died. Rivers lived only a few years after the war. But, Billy! Barker's character:
As the book ends, Billy is shot and loses consciousness. His survival is ambiguous. Caught up in the emotion of reading, I longed to know if he lived or died. A few hours later, I reflected that ambiguity was the right artistic choice. Billy is an Everyman, and as such, he needs to have both options available to end his story arc.
Lots of men came back from the war, and their survival and the struggles and recoveries and tragedies of the post-war stages of their lives are important and interesting. So that had to have happened to Billy the Everyman. He married Sarah and fathered some children, probably. He's a pretty f-ed up guy. Would his parenting challenges have been defined mostly by his war recovery, his having survived so much abuse in his own childhood, or by a combination of those, or another factor, such as his relationship with Sarah? Would a settled-at-home Billy be faithful to Sarah? Would Rivers' strategies to "cure" Billy enough to get him back to France stick with him and help him heal post-war?
But so so so many men died in that battle or of their wounds. Billy Everyman had to have died then too. It was an interesting choice that Barker wrote Billy's story as his journal when he returned to France (and not before). It's an echo of Wilfred Owen, leaving his poetry and his letters home to tell his war story. Billy at war is doomed (anthem for doomed youth); he is "mate", Rivers' Melanesian friends' word meaning dead though not dead yet. Billy is one of the titular ghosts.
Sassoon survived. Owen died. Rivers lived only a few years after the war. But, Billy! Barker's character:
Lots of men came back from the war, and their survival and the struggles and recoveries and tragedies of the post-war stages of their lives are important and interesting. So that had to have happened to Billy the Everyman. He married Sarah and fathered some children, probably. He's a pretty f-ed up guy. Would his parenting challenges have been defined mostly by his war recovery, his having survived so much abuse in his own childhood, or by a combination of those, or another factor, such as his relationship with Sarah? Would a settled-at-home Billy be faithful to Sarah? Would Rivers' strategies to "cure" Billy enough to get him back to France stick with him and help him heal post-war?
But so so so many men died in that battle or of their wounds. Billy Everyman had to have died then too. It was an interesting choice that Barker wrote Billy's story as his journal when he returned to France (and not before). It's an echo of Wilfred Owen, leaving his poetry and his letters home to tell his war story. Billy at war is doomed (anthem for doomed youth); he is "mate", Rivers' Melanesian friends' word meaning dead though not dead yet. Billy is one of the titular ghosts.
I have just finished the book today and I have to say that it totally blew me away.
The third book of the trilogy centers mostly on two of all the characters who were present in the previous books, Rivers and Prior. Throughout the books the characters are developed into vivid, compelling, independent personalities. You can almost feel you knew them in real life after you finish the trilogy, they are so real, so well-developed.
Prior, as a character, shows all of his sides. He's witty, intelligent, brave, and at the same time neurotic, sadistic, unscrupulous, and you still can't avoid finding him really likable, probably because he's so close to what we all are, he's so humane. No perfect hero, but most of the times even painfully familiar, reminding us about our own flaws.
I could definitely continue, but I will round up just by saying that "The Ghost Road" accompanied by the previous two books in the trilogy has definitely won a place in the very top list of my favourite books.
The third book of the trilogy centers mostly on two of all the characters who were present in the previous books, Rivers and Prior. Throughout the books the characters are developed into vivid, compelling, independent personalities. You can almost feel you knew them in real life after you finish the trilogy, they are so real, so well-developed.
Prior, as a character, shows all of his sides. He's witty, intelligent, brave, and at the same time neurotic, sadistic, unscrupulous, and you still can't avoid finding him really likable, probably because he's so close to what we all are, he's so humane. No perfect hero, but most of the times even painfully familiar, reminding us about our own flaws.
I could definitely continue, but I will round up just by saying that "The Ghost Road" accompanied by the previous two books in the trilogy has definitely won a place in the very top list of my favourite books.