Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
by Neil Peart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Neil PeartEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-09-01
ISBN: 1550225480
Number of pages: 460
Publisher: ECW Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781550225488
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
Book Review: Helped me with my grief work
Summary: 5 Stars
My route to this book was circuitous, prompted by half-remembering the tragedy that had touched the author's life. I'd been reminded at a Rush concert and had looked for more information. Not because I was morbidly curious but because my own loss was so fresh (my Mother died last November) and I thought it would be helpful to read about how someone else dealt with it. Yes, I have a couple of "grief books" but those are clinical. I'd heard that this book was personal and raw and beautiful. Indeed, it was all of that and much more.
Of course, you all know now who the author is - the drummer/lyricist for the band Rush - I had already been a fan (though since becoming a Mom, most of my "band guys" had faded into the background). In 1997, right after a successful tour, Peart and his wife Jackie (that was, strangely enough, my Mother's name) saw their daughter, Selena, off to college on August 10th. She never arrived. The description of the police car coming slowly up the driveway and the news being delivered was harrowing to read (as it must have been to write). Then, 10 months later, Jackie died, ostensibly of cancer but Peart is certain that it was a broken heart. How does one deal with such a tragedy? Well, if you are a motorcyclist with an adventurous streak, you ride.
And ride he did: from Toronto to the Arctic Circle and all the way down to Belize. His wanderings were partly planned haphazard-ness. He rode on highways and small roads, mostly, through forests, tundra, deserts and mountains. His descriptions of the scenery take you there as he tells of the flora and fauna and the people. He stayed in nice hotels and shabby ones, ate at high-class restaurants and diners and made me feel as if I were sitting across from him while he wrote in his journal or in letters. He rode until Christmas had passed (quite understandable, that), went back to his home for the winter and then took off again, returning for the summer and then lighting out again. He rode, he said, to help his "little baby soul," that small part of him that held on to life even as the rest of him felt beaten and betrayed by it. He had always believed that "if you get good then do good and further, if you do good, you get good." That credo had been badly damaged. In his travels, he gradually came to be interested in life again, returning to the things that "that other guy" had enjoyed before what happened. It was with delight that I read of him coming back to those things and, finally, coming back to love in the person of his new wife, Carrie.
It was with bittersweet tears that I read the last chapter, knowing how it turned out didn't matter a bit. I cried for his loss and for his searching. I cried happy tears for his redemption and rebirth. I cried and thanked the Powers That Be that we still had him, that his "little baby soul" had grown into a new man's soul.
On the way from that cabin by the lake to Santa Monica, over 55,000 miles in 2 years, he worked through some stuff. And reading about how he managed to do so helped me work through some stuff. Still more to do, of course. But how wonderfully thoughtful and kind of him to share his own healing road. I am very grateful and recommend to anyone grieving a loss that they read this book.
Summary of Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. This memoir tells of the sense of loss and directionlessness that led him on a 55,000-mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again. He had needed to get away, but had not really needed a destination. His travel adventures chronicle his personal odyssey and include stories of reuniting with friends and family, grieving, thinking, and reminiscing as he rode until he encountered the miracle that allowed him to find peace.Composers & Musicians Books
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