The Camino - Hardcover

MacLaine, Shirley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743400720 ISBN 13: 9780743400725

Publisher: Pocket Books, 2001

Synopsis

The author and actress chronicles her extraordinary 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 and Charlemagne to Dante and Chaucer. 200,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Known as the Camino, the Santiago de Compostela Camino is a famous pilgrimage that has been undertaken by people for centuries across northern Spain. It is said 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 sixth decade of life on earth, writer and actor Shirley MacLaine decided to go on this trek. She wasn't sure why, she only knew that the Camino had been traveled for thousands of years by "saints, sinners, generals, misfits, kings and queens. It is done by the intent 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 the grueling 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 diarrhea, and a cosmic crescendo that will knock the socks of MacLaine's fans. --Gail Hudson

About the Author

Shirley MacLaine, Oscar®-, three-time Emmy®-, and ten-time Golden Globe?-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: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743400720
• ISBN 13: 9780743400725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 307