Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road | Neil Peart

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road | Neil Peart | Meet Mr. Peart the man...not the legend.

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Ghost Rider: Trave...

	Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road Neil Peart Ecw Press, 2002 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 207 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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.

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Moving is healing

I had a similiar story: When my mom (last parent) died in 07 it took me over 3 months fromn the time of her death to come up from LA and bury her.

Afterwards I embarked on a 46 day journey to Canada--I have since used the road as my healer.

I am still trying to piece together life post parents.

God bless Mr. Peart and his incredible book and for giving us 34 years of incredible music.

Meet Mr. Peart the man...not the legend.

When you listen to a band for a long time and pretty much idolize them in your adolescence you get the know them fairly well in some ways, but not in others. Like many Rush fans I have gotten to know the public persona of Neil Peart along with his partners Geddy and Alex. You know the one, the rock and roll intellectual, the mercurial demi-god of the basement drummer, the philosopher, the traveler, the legend.
Well here we get to see the real man behind it all, torn open by personal loss and desperate to find something in life worth hanging on to, and he's invited us all along to share in the journey.
In some ways that public image is still there. Peart is very much the intellectual, the examiner, the sort of guy who logically likes to take things apart and figure them out. But we also get the flesh and blood human. He drinks. He smokes. He swears. At times he comes across as a decent, friendly fellow, and at others a bit of a jerk. In other words a regular person just like the rest of us, trying to deal with tragedy and loss the best he can.
As the sort of person who had posters of the band on my bedroom wall in my teenage years, it's hard for me to say how someone who is unfamiliar with the band would react to this work. But as someone who has, as most of us have, dealt with loss in many of its forms, I found a personal connection with this book. I saw in it the familiar sign posts that many of us go through with the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship. It's one man's perspective on the grieving process, but there are universal themes to be found here.

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How odd with the bad reviews, though it is a brilliant book

This is well-written and comes from the heart. I am a RUSH fan(atic) so of course I wanted to read this book. At first I read all of the reviews on this page - mostly the bad ones was interesting. Yes, he is after the American people all right. And after these reviews I realize he is right. What small-minded people... "Oh he doesn't like us but we have made his fortune - he should be greatful". I am not an American and now I pretty much take Neil's side when it comes to the critisism of the people. I would not be very fond of people who were so arrogant to think that they were responsible for all of my talent and fortune either.

Funny to see that all of the bad reviews comes from offended American people who can't take critisism. Well, it is okay to kill people in the name of Godd too, isn't it? Jesus Crist...

Anyway, I really did like this book. It is right that it gets some how boring at some points (it is self biographical - what can you expect?) but it is well-written. I really admire that he seems to make everything important and tries not to take anything for granted (family, friends, a good meal, the trees etc.) and if you can get over your self-rightous, arrogant, and offended mind you will see that the man's got a point. Musicians can't lie on their knees for fans and be begging and thankful all of the time. Fans can be a pain in the butt sometimes. Like friends can be the same.

Read the book as an experience - and stop being offended and so bloody patriotic about everything.

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Not completed yet

I have read about a 1/3 of the book and will update the review upon completion. I have skimmed enough of it to provide some thoughts. First, you need the proper mindset to read it. For those us without a motorcycle or the time to journey as Neil has done, his travels offer a certain appeal. He comes across as a loner under stress. I think many of us can relate to the feeling of insecurity and isolation buried within us. I do believe he could have written this with a better flow for the reader and left out the letters to brutus to a large extent - after all, who cares?

I think his anti-American bias is a fuction of his growing up in Canada - Canadians are thought of as 2nd class to the US. Musically, success and presige in Canada is judged by the band's success in the US. Ask Triumph or any Canadian band how small time the scene is up there. So some American '[...] envy' on the part of Neil is understandable.

I don't think Neil has to apologize for his smoking, discontent for police or even his drug dealing friend. He's probably more a liberal free thinker who is uncomfortable in social settings. Based on his stature, he probably does feel somewhat above the law. These questions of morality are for Neil to ponder.

Neil is what he is, a great drummer and lyricist, who capitalized on his many talents to the fullest extent possible. But at the end of the day he's just a guy going through a huge mid-life crisis. Unfortunately, this leaves the reader sympathetic but equally ambivalent about the road less traveled.

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