Customer Reviews

The Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'The Longest Walk' is an amazing story about the author, George Meegan, who begins walking from the tip of South America, at Ushuaia, and ends up at Pruhoe Bay, at the North Pole. Journeying with him is also his Japanese wife, Yoshiko, and his two children who the have along the way, there names translated meaning: Don't Stop, and Keep Walking. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for many reasons. Meegan gives excellent descriptions of the people and places he meets, and gives insight that is not seen on the surface. I would reccommend this book for anyone who has dreams they want to come true, and also for those who like to read about travel. A great read, no matter how hard it is to find!

I really enjoyed this book. I can relate with the author about many of the personal experiences that he came across in his long journey. George Meegan must be a very deep person in his method of handling the situations that he encountered. On his trip of 7 years, he managed to get married,and father children without totally breaking his mileage countings, however, this is not the main plot of the book. He brought out the warmth of these little known and studied peoples of Latin America and showed the world that these people are really generous and kind, other than what the media makes them out to be. I can relate with one particular experience he had in Mexico that struck me deeply. Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone that may enjoy an adventure of the human spirit. It makes for good reading.

Mr. Meegans feat, (and feet) is/are simply unreal. Next time your kid wants a ride somewhere local. Hand him or her this book. I particularly liked his entries for what he experienced in Honduras. After experiencing what sounds like a complete mental breakdwon in a church basement in Tegucigalpa, he gets up in the morning and starts walking again. Keep on truckin Meegan! You rule, sir.

I read this book about ten years ago and still have vivid scenes in my head of Mr.Meegan's couragous undertaking. I was so inspired by his determination and daring I set off on my own adventure. At the age of 62 I walked across England alone. It wasn't as dangerous as Mr. Meegan's oddyssey, but it was a milestone in my life. Read Longest Walk and it will inspire you to more adventurous undertakings or just give you delightful hours of armchair travel as you walk in his worn-out shoes.

I won't loan this book to anyone for fear it won't come back to me. I plan to reread it every time I feel my own spirit of adventure waning. I would give it 5 stars, but the prose is often awkward - the author was no Faulkner, but he had a wonderful story to tell, one that still has me shaking my head when I think of the determination he possessed to pull this off. If you'd rather read about real people doing amazing things rather than pulp fiction, buy this book! (but don't loan it out . . .)

Too bad it is out of print. I read this years ago and it still haunts my memory as clear as yesterday. Not only is the journey remarkable, but the author is very down to earth and likeable. This is a story of setting a goal and sticking to it to the end.

The Longest Walk is George Meegan's account of his experiences during the seven-year walk he made, covering the length of the Americas from south to north. It is also a love story: he married his girlfriend and they had two children during the course of the trip. It is also a testament to the kindness and humanity of the vast majority of the people he encountered as he walked, when it seemed that the poorest people were the most generous.He was on his own, no sag wagon following close behind. He had only one sponsor, a boot manufacturer. He was lucky to survive the hardships of illness, hunger, thirst, and occasional encounters with criminals and crazy people.
The book is extremely well written and is consistently interesting. I galloped through it and immediately loaned it to a friend; it's one of those books you want everyone you know to have read.

There are a lot of long-walkers these days-mostly backpackers who go along wilderness paths in pristine preserves-but Meegan did his long walk entirely at the edge of the roadside. This is just about the most dangerous place anyone can walk. Significantly, Meegan sees this walk as an obsession, and his worst experiences were not near the slums and impoverished shanty towns that he passed throughout Latin America, but right here in the U.S.A. Gun-crazed, car-crazed, and arrogant, Americans almost managed to bump him off. Canadians were not as much a threat, but they were not at all very helpful either. You might think that impoverished Latinos would be a big threat, particularly in places like Guatemala or Nicaragua (this was in the 1980's, when many of these countries had revolutions and death-squads), but you would be wrong. The impoverished "Indians" who he passed daily in Latin America treated him with understanding and respect. They almost always took him into their hovels and gave him food and drink. In contrast to his descriptions from Latin America, the miles he spent along the roadside in North America are just briefly noted. Things only come alive again when Meegan relates his experiences with the Native Peoples of the Yukon and Alaska-these pages sparkle. This is not just an adventure tale-it is also a great love story, since Meegan embarks on this journey with his Japanese girlfriend Yoshika-who he subsequently marries. They have a great romance, and Meegan manages to father two children. If you love romances, this story will lift your spirits. The book is long and could use some editing, but it was, after all, a very long walk. Highly recommended-whether you are a walker or not.

I highly recommend this book by a unique man who accomplished an amazing feat with his feet.

George Meegan writes about his walk through Latin America and north, a walk during which he had almost no financial support. He gives the reader an insight into the remote rural communities he traveled through and the hospitality of people he met along the way. George's adventures on the road, visited and cheered on by his young wife and small children visiting from their home in Japan, and his determination to walk through a gamut of different types of weather and walking conditions to his goal in Canada, make for great reading!