Hungry Ghosts

England during WWII. Ruth joins the WAAF, and Vic joins the RAF. The book wasn't quite what I expected, but the premise intrigued me. It was an enjoyable read nonetheless. Ruth is a strong and likeable character, although she does have a soft spot for Vic. Even Vic, despite his quirks, was likeable. It was his quirks that made his character come to life. This is the first book I've read by C J Barker, but I'll be watching for more.

Vic and Ruth meet in the midst of World War 2. He’s in the RAF and she’s part of the WAAF. Both have their own challenges, as Ruth doesn’t believe a woman’s place is just in the home and Vic, after being discharged from the airforce suffers from horrific flashbacks of his life during the war. They are both really strong characters and my sense of how life was like for them is brought vividly to life, especially with Vic, who now would have been classed as suffering from PTSD, but then it would have been difficult to put a label on what he was going through. His spiralling behaviour was very sad to read, as was Ruth’s attempts to help him, but I did love her strength and determination in the face of everything. Whilst reading this book, I also witnessed how Vic and Ruth’s son finds a new sense of self as he becomes involved in the joy of 1960’s America but also the revolt against the Vietnam war, finding out more about himself and the man he calls his father. Hungry Ghosts is a wonderfully written book which I was unable to put down, bringing to the fore the horrors of war and how it can almost destroy families. I hadn’t heard of the term hungry ghosts until I’d read this book, but it is a fitting phrase both in the book and real life. But it is also a story about love and family. A thought provoking read I would highly recommend.

War’s horrendous toll evidences itself early on in life for Vic Woods and his wife, Ruth, the two principal characters of C.J. Barker’s “Hungry Ghosts,” with Vic’s mother presumed dead in a Luftwaffe bombing of Liverpool and Ruth’s sailor brother Jim turning up missing in action. But the war's toll on the two will make itself felt even more up close and personal with the devastation that Vic sees as a bombardier over Dresden, with the images from it and thoughts of what it must have been like for people on the ground so devastating that they will haunt him for the rest of his life and factor into his constant abuse of Ruth. A way he’ll find to cope, though, will be through photography, with his career taking off after the war with an image he captures of a veteran throwing himself off London Bridge and then later, during Vietnam, with a photo of a nun immolating herself in protest of the war. So celebrated will his pictures become that they’ll be the stuff of an autobiographical book, “World On Fire,” though his son will be less than enthusiastic about the acclaim, wondering in particular why Vic didn’t put down the camera to help the nun. A legitimate question about journalism in general, whether an observer should intervene in particularly horrendous situations, and one of particular interest to me as a retired journalist, even if in the case of the nun, as in certain other horrific occasions (the famous picture of the Vietnamese general shooting a Viet Cong prisoner, for instance), the possibility or desirability of intervention is debatable (would you really have wanted to save the nun a minute or two after she went up in flames?). Still, Barker's novel is a worthy consideration of the issue, along with the auxiliary question of what draws some people to war journalism – or in the parlance of the book, what makes Vic a “hungry ghost,” always “chasing after something, anything to fill the void.”

I flew through this book. The author's attention to detail of the time period is spot on. I was interested in history at school and the book re sparked my interest. I found Ruth a very strong character and she knew what she wanted in life and wasn't afraid to go after it. I found Vic a little selfish and felt that he didn't deserve Ruth. Overall, a brilliant novel that I highly recommend.

This novel contains many of the elements that draw in the reader like me: a historical setting, strong characters, interesting psychology, social commentary and elements of romance. Hungry Ghosts is the story of a family that begins in World War II and covers life in England from the 1950s to the 1970s, with fascinating side glimpses into the Vietnam War, the brief period of delight and liberation experienced by the hippies of San Francisco, and the student rebellion in Paris in 1968. James, one of the central characters, is the son of Ruth and Vic Woods, both of them damaged by their experiences growing up in England during World War II. James’s father, Vic, is an alcoholic and a talented photographer who pursues the ultimate shot against all odds, regardless of the consequences. The title Hungry Ghosts refers to his restless search for success, which destroys his marriage and his relationship with his son. James grows up without a father figure and is rudderless in his adult life. A romance with a hippie from San Francisco brings brief joy to his life, but Frankie is impossible to pin down and the loss is hard for James to bear. Ruth is a very likeable character. Unlike her husband, as a woman she is denied the chance to develop a career. During the war she was drafted into the RAF and into an interesting role in aerial reconnaissance, but after the war her pregnancy puts a firm stop to any further career plans. When she throws her husband out of the house, she takes on the management of a guesthouse in order to make a living. She never complains, she never gives up on her errant husband, and when Vic returns from Vietnam sick with cancer, she urges James to forgive him. The movement in James from bitter resentment to reconciliation with the father who has always loved him, despite his abandonment of the family, is one of the most moving aspects of the novel.