The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit - Softcover

Maclaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743400739 ISBN 13: 9780743400732

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2001

Synopsis

The author and actress chronicles her journey along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain--the famous pilgrimage route that has been taken by pilgrims ranging from St. Francis of Assisi to Chaucer.

About this title

Review:

Known as the "Camino," the ancient road to Santiago de Compostela is a famous pilgrimage trek taken by people for centuries across northern Spain. It is said, by some, that this 500-mile path lies directly under the Milky Way and that it reflects the energy of the star systems above it. Facing her seventh decade of life on earth, writer and actor Shirley MacLaine decided to take this fascinating trek. She wasn't sure why, she only knew that the Camino had been travelled for thousands of years by "saints, sinners, generals, misfits, kings and queens". Her motivation was that doing the trek would help "to find one's deepest spiritual meaning and resolutions regarding conflicts in Self".

Typical of MacLaine, this is a personal story with enormous adventure, a smattering of flashbacks, and a hefty serving of cosmic revelations. Like a true pilgrim, MacLaine travels solo, willing to strip herself down to the backpacking essentials and find deeper meaning in all the bizarre, frightening, and coincidental events she encounters along the way. It is no small feat that this sixtysomething woman walked this gruelling path in 30 days. Readers can expect vivid stories of stalking paparazzi, icy showers, bouts of hunger, lost paths, a worshipping young man, a deranged woman screaming in a roadside shelter, saintly truck drivers, a fellow pilgrim in a wheelchair, bouts of constipation and diarrhoea, and a cosmic crescendo that will knock the socks off MacLaine's fans. --Gail Hudson

About the Author:

Shirley MacLaine, Oscar(r)-, three-time Emmy(r)-, and ten-time Golden Globe(t)-winning actress, has appeared in more than fifty films, been nominated for an Academy Award six times, and received the Oscar for Best Actress in 1984. Most recently, Shirley was honored with the 1999 Golden Bear Award for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival and the 1998 Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contribution to the entertainment field. She has also won two British Academy awards, two German Silver Bear and Golden Camera awards, two Volpi Cup awards at the Venice Film Festival, two Donatello awards in Italy, and New York Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics awards. A longtime outspoken advocate for civil rights and liberties, Shirley is the author of eight international bestsellers -- Don't Fall Off the Mountain, You Can Get There from Here, Out on a Limb, Dancing in the Light, It's All in the Playing, Going Within, Dance While You Can, and My Lucky Stars. And in her latest film, Bruno, she costars and makes her directorial debut. She lives in Malibu, California, and Abiquiu, New Mexico.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743400739
• ISBN 13: 9780743400732
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 307