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"Ghost Rider" book, motorcycle travel thru US and Canada
Comments (my review) on two non-fiction books recently read:
"Ghost Rider" by rock-band Rush drummer Neil Peart Imagine a book where the author/protagonist: Loses his daughter to an automobile accident Loses his wife who seemingly willed herself death, from grief Loses his dog who seemingly wills itself cancer Then, decides to ride a BMW just "anywhere", semi-aimlessly Describes himself as a bicycle-touring rock-band drummer who doesn't wallow in drugs, sex, or groupies Tours 55,000 miles from one logging road to another, without a cellphone Rides a BMW motorcycle into the remotest and roughest dirt roads, from Yukon to Belize, yet doesn't ask BMW for sponsorship Despises dams because they have destroyed the natural ecology but doesn't mind riding a huge motorcycle that may be getting less mileage than a Toyota Prius Manages to read more books, faster, than most book critics Finds history everywhere, and weaving that history into the present Calls himself a ghost, because [OK, I won't ruin the suspense for the reader] Who is this book for? Anybody [mainly the male baby-boomers] out there who dreams about dirt-biking the Baja, Guatemala, or the Dempster Highway. It'll may just cure you of your dreams (or the illusions) because Peart manages to capture it all, in his book. There are some puzzling human behaviours here. Why did Mrs. Peart bury herself so deep in grief that she was unable to crawl out? Why does the author write about sipping a particular brand of single-malt that his book sometimes reads like an infomercial? In contrast, Peart never reveals his brand of smokes. Is there some hidden guilt behind all of Peart's travel, some Purgatory in why Peart would ride, ride, ride into torrents of rain, mud, headlong, with barely a windscreen, when a Gold Wing would have been way more comfortable? Peart's travels is not caused by a inner (non-spiritual) quest but a need to drown the noise of grief with the noise of road tires. Touring, albeit without a goal. Does Peart come out of "it", and find religion? If he did, he doesn't write about it. Midway through the book, it Peart's self-story seems to drag on, I'm waiting for the punchline. There isn't one. In the last chapter, he somehow overcomes his grief and the widower turns into a single-guy and finally 'gets the girl', a Hollywood one at that. Peart seems to have told of his travels honestly, revealing the most embarrassing details that few men would have courage to disclose. Peart's book, in my view, is worthwhile reading. The second book is "A Keen Soldier" by Andrew Clark. Although I've only managed to get to page 100 or so, I'd like to nominate this book for a Nobel Prize, or something similarly honourable, for the research Clark undertook to deliver, the amazing details of what happened nearly 50 years ago. Clark's writing is so visual (of war scenes) that I have some trouble going to sleep. Clark's masterful weaving of the micro and macro views of bullets and mortar seem to wound this reader himself. It is as "troubling" as the movie, "Saving Private Ryan." And, this book, in my opinion, is an important historical chronicle, without the Hollywood-movie treatment. These details would be impossible to capture in a movie. But, Clark's writing created a movie in my head, his writing is full of vivid scenes. Few books are this profound. Clark's book, in my view, contains as universal a message as Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth" (Nobel Prize winner, if I recall correctly.) |
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