Hotel of the Saints

Hotel of the Saints.  Stories by Ursula Hegi

Simon & Schuster, 2001

The title story caught my fancy but lost my confidence when the character in the Jesuit seminary is described as a ‘brother.’  Jesuits do not call each other ‘brother,’ do they? Jesuits are priests, not monks, and their vows are flexible, or should be, according to this author:   http://www.scribd.com/doc/267211/The-Vows-of-the-Jesuit-Order

I like fiction to be credible and an author who doesn’t know the difference between a Jesuit and a monk mixes things up.  Maybe the characters are inherently uninformed, but then, why would I want to read their perspective.  The stories twist through territory and attitudes that would be interesting to some, but I left this book after the first story.  In the story, the Jesuit helps his aunt name the hotel rooms after saints and then paint and decorate the  paint rooms in the family hotel so they reflect the nature of the saint.

The story was poignant, but simple like a Hallmark television drama one sees in passing running up and down the channels looking for images and acting worth pausing for.

Just Kids

Patti Smith wrote an honest account of how young artists struggle with the enormity of becoming outsiders by embracing the path of art.  The memoir won the National Book Award and that’s no surprise.  The prose is smooth and the concepts expressed are significant for individuals and society.

Anyone who was born during the years 1945-1965, the rock n’ roll protest generation,  will see their hopes and heart reflected in this gentle book.

Walking Spain

Marching Spain

V. S. Pritchett * J.M. Dent & Sons, 1933

Account of a foot trek in rural Spain originally published in 1928. An adept prose stylist, the young Pritchett isn’t above accepting a lift now and then in his progress from Badajoz to Leon.  He’s poor, but richer than the people he bunks down and eats with in a Spain still steeped in suspicion for outsiders.

Pyrenees Guidebooks

Pyrenees Pilgrimage

L Peat O’Neil

Amazon BookSurge Publications, 2010 - Kindle and Print on Demand

Solo walk across France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean

through the Pyrenees Piedmont.

 

Walks and Climbs in the Pyrenees
Kev Reynolds
Cicerone Press, 2001
Detailed guide for serious backpackers.

 

 

Trekking in the Pyrenees
Douglas Streatfeild-James
Trailblazer, 3rd edition, 2005
Friendly tone and easy-going route makes this a good guide for the first timer.

This is the book I used on my trek.

Long Walks in France

Long Walks in France

Adam Nicolson

Harmony Books, 1983

British traveler sets off on foot to tour various regions of France.  He’s interested in people, customs and history and tells unusual lore in a cheerful voice.  Thirty pages of the book mix history and writer’s experiences in a vivid tour of 180 kms through the Pyrenees, from St. Jean Pied du Port to Arrens.

Grand Canyon Walk

The Man Who Walked Through Time

Colin Fletcher

Vintage, reissue 1989

First published in 1967, this account of a camping trek through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River involves prodigious logistics for food and water drops.  Animals and Fletcher’s imagination are the only companions on this hike through geologic time.

The Year of Magical Thinking

Review: Year of Magical Thinking

Reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, I traveled so far and deeply into her world in 53 pages that when I caught a glimpse of the clock, I was surprised how little time had passed.

This is what writers do, competent ones, anyway.  Suspend time, compress it, extend it.  Good writers eliminate time. Their words create a rhythmic magic incantation of higher wisdom.

Religious ritual, war dances, goddess driven examination of entrails — none are as effective a bulwark against time as the writer’s potion.  Sunk in the mind product of a writer, we are eternal and without end.

And these are the same rewarding qualities that religions promise.

Camino Spirits

The Camino, A Journey of the Spirit

Shirley MacLaine

Simon & Schuster, 2000

On a spiritual pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostello, the actress-author encounters other pilgrims and locals who become personal emblems of the journey.   She walks the route from St. Jean Pied du Port to Santiago de Compostello in Spain.

Ezra Pound in France

Walking Tour in Southern France

Ezra Pound, edited and introduced by Richard Sieburth

New Directions, 1992

The Idaho-born poet Ezra Pound toured southern France on foot during the early years of the 20th century, searching for traces of the era of the Troubadours.  The primary audience for this journal of Pound’s 1912 journey may be Pound scholars more than the general reader. Still, anyone interested in Southern France will find lyrical (and sometimes disconcerting) passages in Ezra Pound’s text.  Prof. Sieburth’s editing and his own journey in Pound’s footsteps helps link the 12th c. Troubadours, through 20th c. Pound, to 21st c. readers.

Rucksack Masochist

The Rucksack Man

Sebastian Snow      Hodder and Stoughton, 1976

A masochist, but a funny one, British adventurer Snow walked from the tip of South America through the continent northwards to cross the Panama Canal, his line of demarcation.  His 2001 obituary explains some of the details of the aftermath of the long walk, not contained in the book.  

Never accepting a ride, marching at a furious pace burdened by heavy gear and always low on water, Snow was lucky to survive.  His mighty will drove him on.   The photograph of his feet after months on the road is unforgettable.