Amiable but trite.
The English-language debut of an international bestseller about an unlikely pilgrim who dispenses life lessons while hiking through northern Spain.
In 2001, Kerkeling—a celebrated German comedian who was suffering from a host of physical, mental and spiritual ailments—decided to embark on the strenuous pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile trek that begins in the French Pyrenees, winds through the Basque country and culminates in the Galician area of northwestern Spain, where Saint James was supposedly interred. The author hoped that the journey would “help me find my way to God and thus to myself.” His travel diaries offer amusing, offbeat observations about the trials and tribulations of an overweight, self-described couch potato attempting to hike 12 to 18 miles per day along a rugged trail with a 25-pound backpack slung across his shoulders. Kerkeling’s comic sensibility shines through when he describes the motley assortment of individuals that he encountered along the way, from a fraudulent Peruvian shaman who argued that Hitler’s Mein Kampf was one of the best books ever written, to a perpetually squabbling couple the author nicknamed “Beaky and Billy Goat.” The most touching moments involve the friendships that he established with fellow pilgrims and how the camaraderie helped him complete the arduous route. Kerkeling is less adept at conveying his internal spiritual transformation, largely because he neglects to provide sufficient details about his life before the pilgrimage. Moreover, his musings on spirituality are often rendered in hackneyed prose. He makes assertions such as, “I view God the way I do outstanding films like Gandhi: award-winning and superb!” and ends each chapter with an “insight of the day”—a nugget of homespun wisdom that reads like the inside of a greeting card. Examples include “The heart is always right” and “Do what life demands of you.”
Amiable but trite.Pub Date: June 16, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-5387-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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