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Product Description
Review
"Forget Elizabeth George and her Oprah field memoir about a pilgrimage of rediscovery in middle age. This is the real deal...[Christmas's] style is equal parts Nora Ephron and Bill Bryson, balancing pithy observation with the history of the trail and her own experiences upon it...The warts and grottiness of Christmas's journey...are recognizable and relatable, much more so than a glossy religious experience or steamy love affair, and much more enjoyable for its accessibility." (Quill & Quire 20070922)
"Many books have been written about crossing northern Spain on the centuries-old Camino de Santiago, but this one by a Torontonian is funnier, cleverer and more informative than most." (Vancouver Sun 20071006)
"The title, subtitle and first line of Jane Christmas's memoir tell you almost everything you need to know about the book: who, what, where, when and why are laid out neatly, and the first sentence, 'Impulse is intuition on crack,' sets both the hook and the tone...It's a great first line and it suits the book, which is relentlessly smarter, funnier and holier than thou." (Globe & Mail )
"Many books have been written about crossing northern Spain on the centuries-old Camino de Santiago, but this one by a Torontonian is funnier, cleverer and more informative than most." (Vancouver Sun 20071006)
"The title, subtitle and first line of Jane Christmas's memoir tell you almost everything you need to know about the book: who, what, where, when and why are laid out neatly, and the first sentence, 'Impulse is intuition on crack,' sets both the hook and the tone...It's a great first line and it suits the book, which is relentlessly smarter, funnier and holier than thou." (Globe & Mail )
Book Description
In this wickedly funny account, Jane Christmas describes her pilgrimage along Spain's infamous Camino de Santiago de Compostela in celebration of her fiftieth birthday. Somehow she finds herself leading fourteen squabbling middle-aged women -- until she inadvertently loses them and sets out on her own. That is when her real adventure begins, as she battles loneliness, hunger, and exhaustion.
But she also encounters charming villages, thickly forested vales, and more compatible pilgrims, including an enigmatic fair-haired man, whose appearance has been predicted by a psychic. By journey's end, Christmas has discovered that it is the detours of life that leads us to our heart's desire.
(20071214)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a pilgrim tells the readers,
By
This review is from: What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim (Paperback)
I finished What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim, by Jane Christmas, at 1.30 am yesterday. I just couldn't put it down.I love everything in that book: the complexion of it, the spirit. It's funny and moving at the same time and even if you can tell that the author is a pious person, she keeps an open and critical mind about her fellow pilgrims (and herself). Pilgrims are human beings, right? And when human beings are concerned, anything is to be expected and the book is indeed rich in (mis)adeventures. The book, of course, is about the author's personal experience, but it says so much about the way we humans are - and so much about the Camino itself from an historical and geographical perspective - that even though I'm a "veteran" of the Camino myself, I think that anybody who hasn't walk it will enjoy it! And maybe even walk it one day or another, because, as they'll see, some miracles seem to be still possible after all.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Life-Changing Experience,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim (Paperback)
I don't know what compelled me to read this book other than the fact that the covered mentioned something about Spain's Camino - one of the world's biggest networks of pilgrimages. Like Lourdes in the south of France, the Camino (a trio of lengthy treks to the putative sepulcher of St. James) attracts tens of thousands of hikers every year. Some are the faithful who want to draw closer to God through acts of penance, while others simply turn-up for the challenge of trudging 750 kilometers through mountainous terrain on the way to Santiago. Since this annual affair has been going on for hundreds of years, the Spanish population is well prepared to provide various degrees of hospitality for the sojourners. I even discovered a number of websites that help out-of-towners make travel arrangements to the starting line on the French side of the Pyrenees. Christmas' story is one of a wild adventure that went way beyond her initial expectations for taking the journey. Going through a mid-life crisis in Canada, resulting from a failed marriage, Christmas decided to organize a group of friends to accompany her on the roughest stretch of the Camino. For the next month or so her story unfolds along the lines of learning to adjust to the biggest challenge in her life to date: finding God in herself. As Christmas struggles to overcome the aches and pains, the fear and loathing, and the growing sense of disillusionment, she gradually learns to look outside herself and her little group of so-called friends to find a whole new world beckoning her. While the Spanish countryside and its many decrepit little villages may not possess the spiritual values that she is idealistically looking for to get her life going again, they contain a strong sense of newness and vitality that will challenge her time-worn sensibilities. By the end of the pilgrimage, she has become a transformed person who relates more effectively with people outside her traditional bailiwick, and can begin to take risks with her emotions. There is a lot of fun and high spirit in this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Need to Read this!,
By
This review is from: What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim (Paperback)
A few short months ago,I was introduced to this wonderful book/guide. I couldn't put it down, Liked it so much I to am preparing myself to walk,"The Camino de Santiago"! In fact I'm going in August/September of 2010! Jane has put so much inspiration/Love & Humour in this amazing read,you feela as though you're there with her! She has kept hersanity through the ,"bitching/cat fights/blisters &her fearlessness,(to take on such a long journey),physicaly,is one thing. But to take on your "inner-self", is another more bumpy journey! Thank-you Jane! Blessings Nancy
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