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All the Good Pilgrims
Robert Ward has always enjoyed travelling, especially on foot. When he discovered the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago in Spain, he felt compelled to walk and experience this historic road. From his first journey along the Camino de Santiago, Ward fell in love with the pace, landscape, history, art, and romance of this old pilgrimage path. Above all, however, Ward fell in love with the people of the Camino—both the welcoming Spaniards and the pilgrims who come from all over the world to find out what it means to travel five hundred miles, one step at a time. In All the Good Pilgrims, Ward returns to Spain to walk the Camino for the fifth time. He thinks he knows what he’s getting into but, as his many Camino journeys have taught him, the Camino never runs out of surprises. Each day brings new lessons, friendships, questions, memories, gifts and challenges, reminding Ward that it isn’t the pilgrim who walks the Camino—it’s the Camino that walks the pilgrim. An engaging travel narrative, All the Good Pilgrims is a personal and insightful tour of the Camino de Santiago, as Ward takes readers on a secular pilgrimage in which he reflects on his past journeys and contemplates the mysterious and enduring allure of this ancient and historic road.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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45 people want to read
About the author
Robert Ward
145 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Other authors publishing under this name are:
Robert Ward, educator
Robert Ward
Robert Ward, U.S. novelist and screenwriter
Robert Ward
Other authors publishing under this name are:
Robert Ward, educator
Robert Ward
Robert Ward, U.S. novelist and screenwriter
Robert Ward
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 8, 2015
I almost didn't read this one,* but it turned out to be a good thing I did -- one of the better Camino memoirs I've read to date. Ward's walk across Spain in 2004, which he covers in this book, was not his first: he had done the Camino four times previously, so he already had a trove of stories to draw on, and he was able to look back and compare his 2004 experiences (and goals) with earlier ones.
Ward managed to do something that surprised me: This was, I think, the seventeenth book I've read about the Camino (yes, really, and yes, I know, I know), and yet there are details that I haven't seen elsewhere. A new twist on the Santo Domingo de la Calzada story -- that the innkeeper's daughter and local judges had to wear a symbolic cord around their neck for years; the goose symbolism and the Goose Game; the tau of Saint Anthony by Castrojeriz.
The other thing that's really nice about this book is the focus on other pilgrims, and on Spaniards he meets along the way. There are the Weird Sisters -- As a pilgrimage, a project and a performance, they are walking the Camino in the demure white pilgrim shifts fashionable in Chaucer's day. In every village, the Spaniards stop in amazement to watch them as they pass. They make an especially ghostly impression in the misty dawn and at twilight. One of them explains (with academic footnotes) that their process is meant to result in two "artifacts": dresses soiled with the dust of the Camino (113). There are the Spice Pilgrims, twenty-something whirlwinds of energy and good humour (wish I could emulate them and also suspect they'd drive me nuts...). There's the sixty-two-year-old artist who views painting as both an art and a trade, who paints some things for his own pleasure and others because they're what sell. (There's something to be said about artistic integrity here, but not in the sense that he doesn't have it -- just that he views it as a different thing, I think, than artistic integrity as creating art without concern for money.) Then, too, the man in Santiago dressed in full medieval fare, who tells eager journalists his inspiring story...as Ward stands quietly in the background, calculating distances and walking speeds and noting that the man's tale doesn't seem...possible...and then, .
Last small gem: Ward's glasses broke (were accidentally destroyed, really) quite early on in his trip. It's an unfortunate delay but also a very lucky one: although he lost time, he was able to get a new pair promptly...and in a badly needed (but unrecognised as badly needed) new prescription. The trickster Camino has produced a gift from behind its back. Those are often the best ones (41).
*Couldn't find in the local library. I read it over the holidays, when staying with my parents -- their library had a copy -- but there are so many books that are available one place but not the other! How to decide? And isn't it time I stopped reading about it and just did it? Etc., etc. But it's a good one.
Ward managed to do something that surprised me: This was, I think, the seventeenth book I've read about the Camino (yes, really, and yes, I know, I know), and yet there are details that I haven't seen elsewhere. A new twist on the Santo Domingo de la Calzada story -- that the innkeeper's daughter and local judges had to wear a symbolic cord around their neck for years; the goose symbolism and the Goose Game; the tau of Saint Anthony by Castrojeriz.
The other thing that's really nice about this book is the focus on other pilgrims, and on Spaniards he meets along the way. There are the Weird Sisters -- As a pilgrimage, a project and a performance, they are walking the Camino in the demure white pilgrim shifts fashionable in Chaucer's day. In every village, the Spaniards stop in amazement to watch them as they pass. They make an especially ghostly impression in the misty dawn and at twilight. One of them explains (with academic footnotes) that their process is meant to result in two "artifacts": dresses soiled with the dust of the Camino (113). There are the Spice Pilgrims, twenty-something whirlwinds of energy and good humour (wish I could emulate them and also suspect they'd drive me nuts...). There's the sixty-two-year-old artist who views painting as both an art and a trade, who paints some things for his own pleasure and others because they're what sell. (There's something to be said about artistic integrity here, but not in the sense that he doesn't have it -- just that he views it as a different thing, I think, than artistic integrity as creating art without concern for money.) Then, too, the man in Santiago dressed in full medieval fare, who tells eager journalists his inspiring story...as Ward stands quietly in the background, calculating distances and walking speeds and noting that the man's tale doesn't seem...possible...and then, .
Last small gem: Ward's glasses broke (were accidentally destroyed, really) quite early on in his trip. It's an unfortunate delay but also a very lucky one: although he lost time, he was able to get a new pair promptly...and in a badly needed (but unrecognised as badly needed) new prescription. The trickster Camino has produced a gift from behind its back. Those are often the best ones (41).
*Couldn't find in the local library. I read it over the holidays, when staying with my parents -- their library had a copy -- but there are so many books that are available one place but not the other! How to decide? And isn't it time I stopped reading about it and just did it? Etc., etc. But it's a good one.
January 11, 2022
Amazing. So vivid. I loved it.
June 8, 2014
Not a bad book, but don't mistake it for a travelogue. A narrative of one man's experience in walking the Camino. The author intersperses talked of his current journey with previous experiences along the Camino and at times, because of the number of characters he refers to, it can be difficult to follow if he is talking about a recollection or an experience on his current journey.
August 4, 2015
Ok book. We are doing the last 120 km. In September, so I'm reading several "Camino" books in preparation. There seems to be a snobbishness from the "pilgrims" who complete the entire Camino towards those that 'only' do the final 120. I feel almost apologetic but need to realize each person's Camino is their own.
November 6, 2012
Maybe I will be able to comment on how accurate the descriptions are AFTER I walk the Camino myself next April, but for now ... it was inspiring and reaffirmed for me that this is something I need to do.
April 27, 2008
as i am going to do the camino this fall - i am reading books on the camino - and this would fall into that category. As soon as I can find another one at the library - I will be reading it as well.
April 25, 2011
I read this during Holy Week and am now trying to persuade someone in my family to do the camino with me!
October 19, 2011
Love love this book. Again another walking book, this one set along the Camino de Santiago. I really got a feel for the journey from the author. I will seek out his other books to enjoy.
August 14, 2012
One writers adventures as a pilgrim.
February 1, 2015
gives you a feeling of the pilgrims you will meet and what the spririt of doing the road to Santiago maybe should be.
February 23, 2013
good informative read..... not bad at all
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews