brontherun's review
3.0
Camino books are a strange breed of travel memoir. This one felt somewhat dated to me, published in 1994, and perhaps that is why it didn't resonate with me as much as some of the recent accounts.
Hitt does do a great job of steeping you in the history of the road, the crusades, and the nature of relics that play a crucial role in the growth of Santiago as a pilgrimage site. Relics are such a fascinating thing for me - be they religious or secular (one of my favorite books centers around Descartes' bones). The mysteries, miracles, and magnetism of relics created their own economy and impacted the course of organized religion.
Per Hitt, "Relics were valuable for many reasons. They attracted throngs of worshipers. They raised funds. They created prestige and celebrity. They caused miracles." Ah, the power of relics! It is genuinely fascinating to read about the economic boom-bust cycle they created.
Miracles, sainthood, and how the Catholic Church and Popes sort these issues out is also discussed and examined. Sometimes the sheer proliferation of local miracles (for local, think miracles equivalent to modern images of the Virgin Mary in potato chips) became problematic. "In Rome, the task of controlling the outbreak of miracles and streamlining their meaning became a thousand-year nightmare." Imagine the Popes having to deal - for a millennium - with spin control of people all over Christendom reporting miracles. It would be, say, like Mark Zuckerberg trying to control inaccurate content on his social media sites.
So all the history and his colorful commentary on history would have likely led me to strongly recommend Hitt's account of the Camino. Except, his pilgrimage experience was so alien from mine -drunken nights out, walking with two mules as part of his pilgrim group- that it lent a feel of unreality to the journey that he lost me. I get his description of the pilgrim unplugged from technology and the velocity of the interconnected world. That has only become more significant since 1994. But overall, it felt like he was looking for unique 'characters' with whom to walk, and perhaps that is why he chose to align with the groups he did.
Hitt does do a great job of steeping you in the history of the road, the crusades, and the nature of relics that play a crucial role in the growth of Santiago as a pilgrimage site. Relics are such a fascinating thing for me - be they religious or secular (one of my favorite books centers around Descartes' bones). The mysteries, miracles, and magnetism of relics created their own economy and impacted the course of organized religion.
Per Hitt, "Relics were valuable for many reasons. They attracted throngs of worshipers. They raised funds. They created prestige and celebrity. They caused miracles." Ah, the power of relics! It is genuinely fascinating to read about the economic boom-bust cycle they created.
Miracles, sainthood, and how the Catholic Church and Popes sort these issues out is also discussed and examined. Sometimes the sheer proliferation of local miracles (for local, think miracles equivalent to modern images of the Virgin Mary in potato chips) became problematic. "In Rome, the task of controlling the outbreak of miracles and streamlining their meaning became a thousand-year nightmare." Imagine the Popes having to deal - for a millennium - with spin control of people all over Christendom reporting miracles. It would be, say, like Mark Zuckerberg trying to control inaccurate content on his social media sites.
So all the history and his colorful commentary on history would have likely led me to strongly recommend Hitt's account of the Camino. Except, his pilgrimage experience was so alien from mine -drunken nights out, walking with two mules as part of his pilgrim group- that it lent a feel of unreality to the journey that he lost me. I get his description of the pilgrim unplugged from technology and the velocity of the interconnected world. That has only become more significant since 1994. But overall, it felt like he was looking for unique 'characters' with whom to walk, and perhaps that is why he chose to align with the groups he did.
erikakiana's review
I need to find someone who wants to walk the Camino de Santiago with me next summer so I can have my own experiences.
booktalkwithkarla's review
3.0
Your journey is your journey. Since a few friends and I are walking to Santiago de Compostela in the Spring of 2020 I am enjoying reading about other’s experiences. This one focused on the history of the route and the personal encounters of the author as a pilgrim. There were interesting facts and commentaries. It is unclear to me whether I disagree with his take on things or am just saddened that the religious aspects of the pilgrimage are denounced. Either way, I didn’t like some of what I read about. Since I have yet to experience the walk I will reserve final judgment.
I am anxious to have my own journey to Santiago and appreciate that Hitt gave us more than just a diary of his walk.
I am anxious to have my own journey to Santiago and appreciate that Hitt gave us more than just a diary of his walk.
justahussyfromakron's review against another edition
4.0
Good mix of travel writing, humor, and history. He has an obsession with visiting all the gothic churches around the way and looking for the crude and hilarious evidence of medieval pilgrims and their often less than holy day to day life [b:on the road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573].
lutheranjulia's review against another edition
5.0
While this is a book about a walk in Europe, it is an inimitably Southern book in style. The book drawls, but has many ups and downs on its way to the end, which isn't entirely an end, but just a pause where the teller stopped talking. Jack Hitt's voice, if you know him from later writings or radio work, isn't as fully developed here as it will be just 5-6 years after the book was published, but you can hear what will be. Some of the "information" portions go on a little long here, making the reader wish to be back on the road. Yet those portions that are less enjoyable fold into the whole pilgrimage of reading this book. I will be returning to this again and again.
More...