Reviews

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

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lindseygwilson's review against another edition

2.0

As a runner, I wanted to hear more about this incredible journey. As an American interested in learning more about the peoples native to this land I live in, I was hoping to gain

luckybybritneyspears's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

pamiverson's review against another edition

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3.0

A young Mexican-American man from Yakima Valley drops out of school to go on an organized run from Alaska to southern Mexico. He reflects on his heritage, the interesting folks who were also part of this adventure (which is regularly repeated), and people he meets along the way. Interesting but not profound.

robdawgreads's review against another edition

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5.0

Noé shares his experience participating in the Peace and Dignity Journey, a marathon that lasts for six months and goes through indigenous communities stretching from Alaska to Central America. This memoir/novel is so powerful and I am very thankful to have read it. Highly, highly recommend.

alisarae's review against another edition

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This relay through the Americas was interesting to read because I like listening to books about endurance sports while I run. The book is very short, though, and I wish the author had delved deeper into pretty much every aspect of it. He barely scratched the surface on: histories of different tribes and their lands, oral histories of people he met (example: why was the Uruguayan author still in exile in Mexico? The dictatorship ended a long time ago, and now Uruguay is seen as a utopia, at least by Brazilians), as well as more descriptions of the run itself. Besides that, I guess I don't really like memoirs where people go on a journey to find themselves (Eat Pray Love, Wild, etc).

I disliked the audiobook narrator; I felt his stern, formal voice was not a good match for the personality and age of the author.

Overall, I would say that if you are already interested in reading about Indigenous issues, you would probably like this book. But if you don't care too much, reading this book likely won't spark a passion.