letrouvere's Full Review: Shirley MacLaine - The Camino: A Journey of the Sp...
In The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit, Shirley MacLaine, who is well known as an actress and as an author of books about her experiences with the "metaphysical," recounts her walk along the pilgrimage route from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in southwestern France across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where Saint James the apostle is buried. The journey is almost five hundred miles. Miss MacLaine was often alone on the trip, but was often in the company of some other pilgrims. Although she occasionally stayed in hotels, she usually spent the night in very simple refugios. She carried a backpack, experienced a variety of weather, and had a few encounters with unfriendly dogs. At times she encountered members of the press, and at other times managed to avoid them.
The book is not a traditional travelogue. Miss MacLaine offers little description of the landscape, architecture, or social conditions. Her knowledge of the Roman Catholic church appears to be superficial. What she has to say about the history of the Camino is quite cursory. Curiously, the publisher did not see fit to include a map.
For Miss MacLaine, the significance of the route is that it lies along ley lines, which stimulate spiritual experience. She had some visions in the course of her trip, and she recounts them in some detail. One vision involves her life along the Camino at the time of Charlemagne. She became a mistress of the emperor, and spent time at his court speaking with him about spiritual matters. The other vision is of her life in Lemuria and Atlantis, and the beginning of the "Adamic" period in human history.
As readers of her previous books may know, Miss MacLaine can be a very interesting writer, and she is quite successful in popularizing ideas about spirituality. Although this is not one of her better books, it is still an interesting read, and I recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed her previous books. If one is coming to the writings of Shirley MacLaine for the first time, it might be better to begin with Out on a Limb, which contains more substance.
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