The Ghost Road
novel by Pat Barker
The Ghost Road (1995) by Pat Barker The Ghost Road is a war novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War. The other books in the trilogy are Regeneration and The Eye in the Door. The war poet Siegfried Sassoon, who appears as a major character in the first book, Regeneration, is relegated to a minor role in this final volume, in which the main players are the fictional working-class officer Billy Prior and the real-life psychoanalyst William Rivers. Thus Barker explores possible relationships between real people and fictional characters.
Quotes
edit- We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job.
- Billy Prior
- Ghosts everywhere. Even the living were only ghosts in the making. You learned to ration your commitment to them. This moment in this tent already had the quality of remembered experience.
- Billy Prior
- Murder is only killing in the wrong place.
- Billy Prior
- Even the living were only ghosts in the making. You learned to ration your commitment to them.
- Chapter 3, page 46
- He likes being dominated, as people often do who've never had to raise their voice in their lives to get other people running after them.
- Chapter 7, page 108
- He has a lot of strengths but he isn't working from strength.
- Chapter 7, page 110-111
- Poor little bugger's had a station goodbye that's lasted for days.
- Chapter 7, page 112
- The mess has scuffed no-colour lino — the colour of misery, if misery has a colour...."
- Chapter 7, page 114
- After marriage complete fidelity was required and one expression of this was that one must never utter the name of an ex-lover.
- Chapter 8, page 129
- The widow of a chief can be freed only by the taking of a head.
- Chapter 10, page 170
- "The world had gone mad, but they were the only ones who knew it."
- This quote reflects the soldiers' sense of alienation and their awareness of the absurdity and brutality of war.
- The noise was a physical thing, a pressure that pressed down on you, making it hard to breathe.
- This quote conveys the overwhelming sensory experience of the battlefield, highlighting the constant barrage of noise and its impact on the soldiers' mental states.
- They were all walking corpses, their bodies alive but their souls already dead." ** This quote conveys the devastating effects of war on the soldiers' psyches, suggesting that they are emotionally numb and detached.
- The past was always with them, a shadow that followed them wherever they went.
- This quote highlights the lasting impact of trauma on the soldiers' lives, suggesting that they are unable to escape the horrors they have witnessed.
- He was going mad. He knew it. He could feel it happening.
- This quote reveals the fear and despair of a soldier facing the possibility of mental breakdown, a common theme in the novel.
- They were all broken men, but they were trying to put themselves back together, piece by piece.
- This quote suggests that the soldiers are struggling to cope with their trauma and rebuild their lives after the war.
- They were fighting for a cause that they didn't understand, for a war that they didn't believe in.
- This quote reflects the soldiers' moral confusion, questioning the justification for the war and the sacrifices they are being asked to make.
- They were killing each other for no reason, for a piece of land that didn't matter.
- This quote emphasizes the senselessness of war and the futility of the fighting.
- The lines between good and evil were blurred, and it was hard to know who was the enemy.
- This quote reveals the moral complexities of war, suggesting that there are no easy answers and that all sides are capable of violence and cruelty.
- The world was a strange place now, a place of shadows and ghosts.
- This quote reflects the soldiers' altered perception of reality, suggesting that their experiences have transformed the way they view the world.
- He wasn't sure what was real and what was a dream.
- This quote highlights the disorientation and confusion experienced by soldiers due to the trauma of war.
External links
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