The Ghost Road [Paperback]

Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy begins with 1991's 'Regeneration', is followed by 1993's 'The Eye in the Door' and ends with 'The Ghost Road' in 1995. I read them back-to-back in 2011 and, even though I expected the trilogy to improve on the phenomenal start it made with 'Regeneration' - considering 'The Eye in the Door' won the Guardian Fiction Prize and 'The Ghost Road' won the Booker Prize while `Regeneration didn't win any prizes - I found it actually became less engaging and less focused with each book, particularly with the final book.
All three books are set during World War I. 'Regeneration' focuses on the war poet Siegfried Sassoon as he recovers from shell-shock in a war hospital in Scotland and is treated by Dr Rivers (who is the main character throughout the trilogy); 'The Eye in the Door' is based more on life in the UK during the war, looking at the issues facing homosexual men and those sheltering deserters and/or pacifists; while 'The Ghost Road' sees Billy Prior, a soldier who was in the war hospital in 'Regeneration' and involved heavily in 'The Eye in the Door', return to the war front. This final book is split between Prior's accounts of the war, Dr Rivers's work in a war hospital and Rivers's flashbacks/recollections of his early anthropological studies among a tribal culture.
The main themes binding the books are the sense of futility and hopelessness that drove soldiers to insanity; the emasculating effects of being stuck in a trench (or any place) where you are ordered to do things and have your fate taken out of your own hands. This is contrasted with the paternal relationship that Rivers develops with his patients, the paternal relationships that Sassoon and Prior feel for the soldiers they go to war with, and the often paternally-inflected homosexual relationships that crop up in the final two volumes, but particularly in volume two ('The Eye in the Door').
The concentrated gaze of the first volume, set almost entirely in the war hospital, adds to the intensity of the volume and helps to convey the intensity of the soldiers' experiences, which are described in an often shocking way that pulls no punches (I can't remember ever wincing before while reading a book).
While the second volume switches its gaze, it maintains a similar level of intensity and the grittier dialogue works well in adding to the more 'everyday' narrative. While volume one is set within a very regimented reality, removed somewhat from real life, volume two sits squarely within the domain of everyday life in Britain and Barker proves herself equally adept at capturing both.
Unfortunately the exact thing that gives the first two volumes their intensity - that level of focus - goes in 'The Ghost Road' as the narrative scatters about. I found it hard to really engage with any of the narrative threads, despite having invested in the main characters (Rivers and Prior) in the previous volumes. Rivers's recollections of his anthropological research do tie in very neatly thematically, but they feel too deliberate, too strained, and the natural, genuine feel of the first two books is consequently lost somewhat.
However, overall, this is a very intelligent account of the effects of World War I on everyone involved in it, from the soldiers at the front to the people left at home. I suspect 'The Ghost Road' won the Booker Prize more as a nod towards the quality of the trilogy as a whole than for that book on its own, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read the trilogy. Anyone interested in psychology, wars, war poetry or modern literature should.

Although I'm not an avid reader of fiction, `The Ghost Road' caught my eye because of my interest in 20th century history. Refreshingly the book focuses on psychological effects of war, rather than focusing on the action itself as we have seen countless times in the movie genre. The story revolves around the relationship of two men, war psychologist William Rivers, and army officer Billy Prior.

The book is eloquently written and packed with emotion, so is likely to keep a reader glued to its pages, once hooked into the story. But despite the wonderfully articulated array of feelings, I can't help but get the overwhelming sense that I am joining the story half way through, due to this being the last of the trilogy and feeling very much so. I therefore recommend that this book should be read after its predecessors, as I felt that I was missing crucial back story. Various events in the book leave the meaning open to interpretation, particularly those referred to in Rivers' corrupted dreams. I believe a certain amount of this is a deliberate ploy by Barker who does not want the reader to gain a full insight on a first reading. Readers would certainly benefit from reading the book on two or three occasions, as there are many details to decipher, and feelings to explore. But after just a single read, this level of ambiguity left me less than fully enlightened.

The book does however give an honest and moving insight into the world of counselling. It is particularly poignant when Rivers begins to realise that his sole purpose in the war is to mend the broken minds of soldiers, and his so called "success stories" only culminate in the poor men being sent back into action. This makes it seem that his work can never be seen as a success, which may be a factor for his consistent flashbacks to his time spent in the Solomon Islands, when we may have felt he was of more use.

This book has much more to offer the reader than straight up action-based, historical fiction. The book skilfully highlights how the stalemate of the fighting taking place as the war drew to a close, gave time for reflection. The characters insightful self-analysis brings up important moral and social issues which make the novel more thought-provoking and appealing to a wider audience then a wartime book would usually command.

To gain a full insight into this book, I suggest reading all three of Pat Barker's books in the "Regeneration" series. Nevertheless `The Ghost Road' is appealing and interesting for a wide audience. The feelings and emotion combine with moral questions to produce an intriguing, well written, thought-provoking work of historical fiction, which introduces the reader to a side of war they have never seen. Furthermore, I believe that many would see this book as a fitting, original and emotional tribute to those who fought in The Great War.

This is a wonderful conclusion to a wide-ranging and thought-provoking trilogy, exploring not just the now-familiar horrors of the Great War, but psychological trauma, death, sex, morality and - in the Melanesian scenes in this book - truisms across cultures.
The Ghost Road is in many ways the best of the three, focussing primarally on the psychologist Rivers and the anti-hero of the trilogy, Billy Prior, who, in his return to France, is given a much more meaningful and emotional role than was apparent in the fairly middling second book 'The Eye In The Door'.
One of the obvious criticisms is that these characters - even though many are based on real, historical people - are defiantly NOT people of the 1910s, but - in morals, outlook, and mainly a pervasive sense of modern liberalism - people of our own time. Rivers the psychologist heals the 'shell-shocked' not by the crude electric-shock treatment of his peers, but by empathy, understanding and psychological techniques that would not be out of place in today's healthcare system. The fighting men and patients have attitudes to homosexuality and trauma, and a level of worldly cynicism, that are not apparent in contemporary accounts, but which make them seem much more creatures of our own time.
I do not see this as a bad thing, however; by giving her protagonists modern values, Barker allows her modern readers to empathise with, and understand, her characters better, increasing the emotional impact of their various ups and downs.
This is a wonderful book, haunting and thought-provoking, and deserves its place as one of the best books written about World War One, or even of the last 20 years.