I love Rush and traveling. I appreciate Neil Peart but my main interest in reading his book was his long journey across North America. Of course, I had some concern about the horrible family losses he had to deal with (both his wife and unique daughter died within a year!!)
I really appreciated the way Peart introduced this context and how he managed to deal with his grief while traveling and writing. He his a pretty good writer, that is obvious. The first half of the book is very interesting for people interested in the "traveling" part. Peart gives us a good description of his journey and introduces the reader to great places to visit in North America. I really enjoyed this part of the book.
After 200 pages or so, Peart begins to tell his story through letters, most of them to his friend in jail. He returns to his home for a few months before returning on the road. While at home, he writes dozens of letters to his friend and other people, mostly telling about his evolution in grieving. I understand Peart's intention but I was a bit bored by this part. You may prefer the middle part of the book of you are looking mostly for the "grieving" part.
About 2/3 toward the end, Peart returns on the road, but from there his journey is badly told (not that bad but the first part is really better), skipping more and more parts of his trip. At the end I was getting so bored about his letters, I wanted to skip a few to get to a more interesting part... or even to the end.
Overall, a good book, but oviously most readers will love and hate some parts of it. |
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road Books In Print, Audio Books.