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londiniumgirlbooks 's review for:
The Ghost Road
by Pat Barker
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.