Pat Barker
In this, the conclusion to the powerful and acclaimed Regeneration trilogy, Pat Barker returns to the battlefields of the Great War, both visibly in France and more subtly at home in England and in the addled minds of those affected by shell-shock. This book departs from the others in two significant ways and in its way rounds out the series: although there are similar themes across the series, Regeneration deals with shell-shock and the mental experience of the horrors of war by those who serve; The Eye in the Door tackles the experience of those at home and the tension between pacifists, mentally-unfit soldiers, and ordinary citizens; The Ghost Road is, despite some moments of action and dramatic tension, mostly a quiet meditation on death and violence across two distinct cultures. Barker takes readers down an unexpected and ultimately rewarding path by following main character Dr. Rivers's experiences on a small, anonymous Melanesian island, where the natives have been stripped of their orderly (but brutal) head-hunting customs by the same nation that is sending its youth to endless slaughter in France. The connection is a bit uneasy for the majority of the book and unnecessarily deep detail allows it to distract from the main focus of the novel. Barker does aptly juggle the two two main narratives, parallel stories of Billy Prior returning to France and Dr. Rivers treating patients in London. Though the missionary narrative often becomes distracting and burdensome, the three narrative threads are woven together beautifully at the novel's conclusion, providing some ultimate context to the war and wrapping the trilogy up nicely.
The Ghost Road, despite its lengthy concern for events that come to seem more or less irrelevant, provides more of the excellent and careful writing readers come to expect from Barker. She approaches her gruesome subjects with a marked tenderness that nonetheless allows for skillful and unrelenting images of the Front and for casualties at home. Her prose is easily readable and poetic in its simplicity- Barker says exactly what she means to exactly as she should, bringing the distant Great War to vivid life without any hint of contriving prose or self-absorption. This takes a rare editorial talent that is apparent throughout the series and which gives her battle scenes and depictions of very real mental wounds all the more moving and riveting. The Ghost Road successfully, if obtusely at times, explores the question of death across two cultures and is a moving testament to all who served in the Great War or any war who must silently bear wounds both seen and unseen. The Regeneration trilogy is a unique and breathtaking look at an often unexplored aspect of war and conflict on the human soul and should be widely read for its humanity and insight.
Grade: A-
The Ghost Road, despite its lengthy concern for events that come to seem more or less irrelevant, provides more of the excellent and careful writing readers come to expect from Barker. She approaches her gruesome subjects with a marked tenderness that nonetheless allows for skillful and unrelenting images of the Front and for casualties at home. Her prose is easily readable and poetic in its simplicity- Barker says exactly what she means to exactly as she should, bringing the distant Great War to vivid life without any hint of contriving prose or self-absorption. This takes a rare editorial talent that is apparent throughout the series and which gives her battle scenes and depictions of very real mental wounds all the more moving and riveting. The Ghost Road successfully, if obtusely at times, explores the question of death across two cultures and is a moving testament to all who served in the Great War or any war who must silently bear wounds both seen and unseen. The Regeneration trilogy is a unique and breathtaking look at an often unexplored aspect of war and conflict on the human soul and should be widely read for its humanity and insight.
Grade: A-
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