Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart
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Book Reviews of Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
Book Review: Therapy for the soul
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book to be a surprisingly candid look into the life of someone who has experienced unimaginable tragedy. It is a combination travelogue, diary of deep personal feelings, and a chronicle of the letters Neil writes to various friends (mostly his best friend Brutus who is in jail).
The author does an excellent job of sharing his innermost thoughts as he travels his healing road. You get the good, the bad and the ugly. Everything from those first glimpses of allowing himself to enjoy something, to the nasty thoughts about why the unattractive people around him were allowed to live while those he loved were not. He puts on paper the thoughts that we would all think, but maybe not be open enough to share. You have to appreciate such openness, especially as he deals with the reactions of in-laws and other family when he starts to date again, etc.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has every had to deal with grief or for anyone who has ever wondered how they would deal with such tragedy.
I wish that there would have been more narrative about the time from when the Ghost Rider stops riding to the present day but you are given enough information to share in his recovery and rebirth - Ah the things that love can do.
Book Review: I think I need a motorcycle!
Summary: 5 Stars
done! "Ghost Rider" is an account of a man losing his most important value, his family, and struggling to find a reason to continue living. The author's way of dealing with the loss and madness was to hop on his motorcycle and RIDE! To where? He didn't know. For how long? It didn't occur to him. For what? There was nothing else for him to do.
The author summarizes his travels, shows us personal letters to friends, and offers philosophical asides on everything from whiskey ("everything in moderation with occasional excesses") to great writers to Pink Floyd's "Animals" album and Roger Waters' view of mankind.
Mostly, "Ghost Rider" is the story of, to my eyes, a good man dealt with unjustly by Fate who did his best to regain his balance in hopes of making a new agreement with Fate because: What the heck else are you gonna do? Sit around and feel sorry for yourself? For how long? That's stupid!...P>It's well-written. Will you like it? A book is nothing. It's the humanity of the man who reads it that counts. Give Les Miserables to a fool and he has kindling. Give it to a thinking man and you have a tempest! (Haha - that wasn't half-bad!) For the thinking, compassionate person, this book will take you to the abysses and mountaintops of human experience.
Book Review: It isn't about Rush, motorcycles or a road trip
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember when the book hit the shelves and remember glancing through the pages at a local book store. It didn't resonate with me at all. Yeah, I like Rush but I'm more of a guitarist, frustated at that, and I'm not into motorcycles. Nothing hit me to buy the book or to keep looking through it.
Then life hit me and as I was searching for answers and wondering if I was losing my mind to grief and loss, I remembered that Neil wrote a book. Through the first half of the book, I painfully relived my wife's death, her life and our life together. Through the words of someone else, I put relevance on what I was going through and what I still have yet to face.
Neil's story is, in my mind, one about healing and recovery. He expresses his humanity with incredible clarity, the good, bad and ugliness of it. If you haven't experienced the depth of grief and loss through the death of a spouse (I have) or perhaps a child (I have not), this book might not be all that interesting to you. If, like me, you are suddenly coined as a "widower", read the book.
I doubt seriously that any author, but the self indulgent, read these reviews. If for some odd chance that the author reads this, thanks!!
Book Review: Good book for the healing 5 Stars
I found this book helpful. Knowing other people that go through this have the same thoughts. I lost my 9 year (11 now) old son 2 years ago to cancer. I've gotten very bitter inside towards other people. After 2 years it is only worse than before, maybe the numbness has worn off!I almost didn't buy this book because some of the reviews I've read from here were poor, but these were written by people that live in their glass houses and haven't lived through anything like Neil did.
I purchased my motorcycle a year after my son passed away. It is my only time to really relax and sooth my soul. I do know that he is with me when I ride. He always loved motorcycles, I just wish I could have gotten one when he was here to enjoy it with me (was looking when he got sick)
One comment that really pisses me off that I hear alot of (and in a recent review here) is
"I wish that Jackie & Neil had had at least 2 or 3 children. Because I think we can safely assume that the severity of Jackie's grief was partially due to the fact that Selena was her only child." This is very ignorant of anybody that thinks this.
Book Review: A story of redemption
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a story of tragedy and redemption by a man who is forced to deal with the tragic deaths of first his daughter and shortly after, his wife. His only way of escaping his pain is to keep moving, and because a motorcycle demands such intense concentration it becomes his vehicle of choice.
I enjoy Peart's writing style and found that the pages went by all too quickly. I felt as though I was there riding with him, staying in the hotels, having dinner, enjoying the countryside, and sharing his grief. I also realized that I liked Peart as a person. He is honest in his writing and he doesn't try to gloss over his feelings, although some reviewers seem to wish he would. Who among us has never had thoughts of superiority or prejudice?
I, like many who have purchased this book am a long time rush fan. I regard Peart as the world's premiere rock drummer and lyricist. I admire his willingness to share his story with us, and look forward to his next writing endeavor.
I highly recommend this book to any who enjoy a good travel story, but not to those who are easily offended by another's opinions.