The Ghost Road by Pat BarkerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I began reading this book aware of its high literary reputation as a fictional portrayal of some of the men suffering the after effects of their battle experience during World War One. I did not realise initially that some real characters like William Owen and Siegfried Sassoon would also feature in it, but not as significantly as they had in books 1 and 2 of the trilogy. Although this can be read as a stand-alone novel I was obviously not aware that The Ghost Road is the third book. However, from the start of the novel I found much of it too stark in its often graphic narrative descriptions of supposed sexual behaviour between the main character, Billy Prior, and prostitutes. The thoughts, fears and doubts of Prior are mostly well done. And his treatment from Dr. Rivers, as well as the doctor’s previous experiences amongst a tribe of head hunters in Melansia, helped a little in understanding some of the extreme and crippling mental effects the patients had to endure. It was intriguing to read about and compare the medical treatment offered by Dr. Rivers and the tribe’s shaman but, for me, not very convincing.
As a historical fiction it was obviously full of the kind of research that the genre fan hopes to find, but as an enjoyable read it was not the book that made me want to read novels 1 and 2. In the end I could not relate to any of the characters and found too many of the conversations and historical characterisations unreal.
