Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road
Within a ten-month period, 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 personal devastation that led him on a 55,000-mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again.
Peart chronicles his personal odyssey and includes stories of reuniting with friends and family, grieving, and reminiscing. He recorded with dazzling artistry the enormous range of his travel adventures, from the mountains to the seas, from the deserts to the Arctic ice, and the memorable people who contributed to his healing.
Ghost Rider is a brilliantly written and ultimately triumphant narrative memoir from a gifted writer and the drummer and lyricist of the legendary rock band Rush.
Peart chronicles his personal odyssey and includes stories of reuniting with friends and family, grieving, and reminiscing. He recorded with dazzling artistry the enormous range of his travel adventures, from the mountains to the seas, from the deserts to the Arctic ice, and the memorable people who contributed to his healing.
Ghost Rider is a brilliantly written and ultimately triumphant narrative memoir from a gifted writer and the drummer and lyricist of the legendary rock band Rush.
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Community Reviews
Who woulda thunk I'd be reading a book by the drummer from Rush? Yes, didn't we all love them back in the day... But then I moved on. Sorry to say I didn't know anything of Neil Peart's life and writing until he passed away recently, and someone I know mentioned reading this book at a dark time in their life and how much it helped them. When I heard it was a road trip book of sorts, I was all in.
Right from the beginning, though, I was drawn in for a different reason. Peart suffered two unbelievable tragedies one right after the other. This is basically him trying to find out how to survive, how to create a new normal for himself, fumbling here and there, and mostly getting on his motorcycle and escaping, just riding and riding, and riding. He travels all over North America, from Canada to the US to Mexico, from west to east and back again. He was a very pensive soul, and a voracious reader. He talks about the books he's reading and some favorite bookstores on his travels, and the books that affected him. He talks about the places he's been, of course, but it was the deeper thoughts and inner turmoil that pulls you in and takes you along with him, hoping he figures it out and gets to a good place (while knowing that of course he did). It's too bad I discovered him after he's already passed on. Lovely man, lovely book.
Right from the beginning, though, I was drawn in for a different reason. Peart suffered two unbelievable tragedies one right after the other. This is basically him trying to find out how to survive, how to create a new normal for himself, fumbling here and there, and mostly getting on his motorcycle and escaping, just riding and riding, and riding. He travels all over North America, from Canada to the US to Mexico, from west to east and back again. He was a very pensive soul, and a voracious reader. He talks about the books he's reading and some favorite bookstores on his travels, and the books that affected him. He talks about the places he's been, of course, but it was the deeper thoughts and inner turmoil that pulls you in and takes you along with him, hoping he figures it out and gets to a good place (while knowing that of course he did). It's too bad I discovered him after he's already passed on. Lovely man, lovely book.
Important to know that I read this book not because of the author's notoriety, but in spite of it. It's not that I dislike Rush; they've just never been a band that I'd go out of my way for. The book however, gave me a much deeper respect for the drummer (the author) and his ideas.
This was the first of many motorcycle odyssey books that I've since gone on to read. The description of the bike itself is just the icing to get you to pick the book up. The real substance is the introspection that time on the bike breeds, and the author's reasons for seeking it.
It's kind of funny that the common theme of Ghost Rider and other books like it, is the idea that a motorcycle helmet becomes a pressure cooker for both deconstruction and reconstruction of worldviews. This may sound a bit grandiose to those who've never experienced it, but I feel that it will ring true to anyone who has taken longer trip on two wheels.
Despite having an enviable career, Peart suffered immense personal losses as a backstory to the book. Effectively an existential crisis since none of what happened to him and his family made any sense in his past worldview.
Peart has written other books, one of which I started but then put down. It paled compared to Ghost Rider, in my opinion. In my opinion, Ghost Rider dominates because it came from Peart's profound suffering and the faithful narration of the introspection that followed.
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