A funny, irreverent travelogue through France and Spain describes places considered sacred--fortresses, monasteries, statues, and relics--and features quirky, modern pilgrims seeking knowledge of themselves and each other rather than God. 15,000 first printing.
Off the Road
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From Publishers Weekly
When freelance journalist Hitt decided he needed a long walk, he had in mind the 500-mile trek from Saint-Jean Pied de Port, in France, to Santiago del Compostello, in Spain, one of the medieval routes of pilgrims to the shrine of St. James the Apostle. For this lapsed Episcopalian, his immersion in the history of Santiago meant not only a long walk to clear his head but adventure and an exotic setting for a travel book. The self-questioning Hitt found the road crowded with other pilgrims with different agendas. In a pale, somewhat self-conscious version of a Canterbury Tale, he sketches them deftly as they straggle along, silhouetting them and himself against medieval pilgrims and dipping into church history and architecture, love and the stories of Saint James. This offbeat travelogue describes a still-living tradition of pilgrimage and a culture of the road both delightful and informative.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
For centuries the Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela has been a magnet for millions of the faithful throughout Christendom. This shrined city, devoted to the marytred apostle St. James, is traditionally reached on foot by peregrinos (pilgrims) who hike hundreds of miles to receive blessings. Hitt, a contributing editor to Harper's and Lingua Franca, spent weeks walking this path, where Charlemagne, the Cid, Pope John XXIII, and countless others have tread since the ninth century. The author endured grueling weeks of rugged countryside, scorching weather, mangy dogs, and eccentric hostelers to write an irreverently amusing and colorful adventure. Most interesting are the assortment of characters he meets along the way, each of which could be drawn from Chaucer. Beyond his personal experiences, Hitt offers fascinating historical background on church architecture, the Crusades, and the Knights Templar, which makes this travelog a terrific complement to travel and Spanish and European cultural collections.
David Nudo, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
David Nudo, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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4.0 out of 5 stars
24 reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wherever you go, there you are
Feb 3 1998
By P. Lozar
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author is frank, spares neither himself nor others, and his writing is often screamingly funny. His fellow pilgrims are a motley collection of rogues, jocks, fanatics, earnest believers, and clueless tourists -- but even in more pious eras, people went on pilgrimages for all sorts of reasons, few of them lofty (witness the Canterbury Tales). Hitt never manages to pin down his own motivation for making the trip, doubtless disappointing readers who expect every journey to end in a blinding flash of insight. But I found his candor refreshing: he tells it like it is and doesn't pretend to a piety he doesn't feel, even when he's momentarily overcome with emotion upon reaching his goal. Chaucer had it right: a pilgrimage is a metaphor for life itself, we're all on this road together, and, if you keep your eyes open, you'll learn that the journey IS the destination.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
with critical humour
April 9 2007
By Robert L. France
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
For my recent compilation of pilgrimage quotations ("Ultreia! Onward! Progress of the Pilgrim") I read all 40 or so contemporary English journal accounts available about the various routes. Hitt's is clearly within the first grouping of 8 or so best such books (i.e. largely those written by established authors and/or academics). This was the third or fourth pilgrimage account I read and after plowing through another couple of dozen of such I remained impressed by both the sense of humour and critical eye that Hitt brought to describing his trip. One finds much here about the various characters that one is likely to encounter along the route and Hitt is accurate in his portrait of the moving circus that the camino has unfortunately become.
42 of 56 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment
Nov 1 1997
By dgkinney@alaska.net
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Having read a favorable review of this book in one of the Seattle papers, and having heard my wife tell of the Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela, I looked forward to reading this and was very prepared to like it. Though Hitt is clearly a writer of some talent, the narrative was rather poorly drawn and aimless. There was simply not much interesting in his story. What's worse, the Kirkus Reviewer is right: Jack Hitt does adopt a smug tone, discussing the religious aspects of the journey and the concept of "god" (with a pointedly lower-case "g") in a belittling manner at every turn. He seems to incur experience but to absorb none of it; he seems to learn nothing, because he knew everything he wanted to know when he started. In short, this is a regrettable effort.
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