★★★★★ 5
Been on the Camino and love this book
Format: Paperback
I am a Joyce Rupp fan. I'd always dreamt of doing the Camino some day, and when I saw that Joyce had done it, and written a book about it, I quickly bought it and read it.
Her book gave me the courage to buy a plane ticket and go. I'm a hiker and camper. I could tell from reading her book that some of the facets of the hike- some of the albergues, some of the pilgrims, some of the food-- etc etc-- were perhaps harder for her to accept than they would be for me. I thought she gave a really honest appraisal of how things were for her, and was touched by how she eventually resolved some of those contretemps.
I recently was looking at reviews of the book and was surprised to see some of the negative reviews. What I got from reading Joyce's book was an honest look at the Camino from the eyes of a middle-aged woman used to her own personal space, solitude, food, level of cleanliness, etc. One does necessarily give a lot of that up when on the Camino, if you stay in the albergues! They are fabulous places for meeting people from all over the world- but they can make you cringe if you are not used to hearing snoring at night. What I love about this book is the life lessons, her thoughts on what she found there, and what she got out of it in spite of -- and maybe even because of her discomfort.
I recommend this book for mature people thinking of hiking the Camino. In 2011 I accompanied a women's group from my church from Samos to Santiago, and I asked them all to read the book-- they liked it, too.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2013

