What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago [Paperback]

Jane Christmas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2007

To celebrate her 50th birthday and face the challenges of mid-life, Jane Christmas joins 14 women to hike the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Despite a psychic’s warning of catfights, death, and a sexy, fair-haired man, Christmas soldiers on. After a week of squabbles, the group splinters and the real adventure begins. In vivid, witty style, she recounts her battles with loneliness, hallucinations of being joined by Steve Martin, as well as picturesque villages and even the fair-haired man. What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim is one trip neither the author nor the reader will forget.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Greystone Books (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1553652401
• ISBN-13: 978-1553652403
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Every way is valid, but I am distressed about this way, October 15, 2007

By 

Elizabeth Shoemaker "Jane Shoemaker" (Coquitlam, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago (Paperback)

I walked the Camino, from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, in 2003, in part to celebrate my sixtieth birthday. I spent almost every night in an albergue, or pilgrim hostel.
No experience of walking the Camino is typical, and every experience is valid, but I feel very unhappy at Jane's words being given such publicity, undoubtedly giving many people the idea that if they were to do the walk, they could expect to undergo her difficulties. People who choose to walk the Camino are almost all seekers, who by releasing themselves to this experience are hoping to open themselves to new understanding, new ways of thinking, and the magnificent experience of the pilgrimage.
During my six weeks on the road I found that one of the great gifts of the Camino was being with these people, from so many backgrounds all over the world, who had chosen to walk. For the most part I chose to walk alone, but it was an extraordinary privilege to be with these people, in the albergues each morning and evening. Toward the end of my time it occurred to me that not since before I had set out had I heard a word of anger or complaint spoken. It seemed that there was a Camino culture to respect and care for all others, to be open to learn from all others, and to create and maintain peace.
Similarly in the albergues, one was thankful for what was given. In one albergue there may be no pillows, or in another no hot water for the showers. One night along the way there were dogs barking in a field outside the albergue, dogs that continued to bark for over an hour. It was a remarkable and joyful thing to me that I never heard complaints about such things. One was thankful for everything that was given, and one figured out how to manage without those things we expect to have at home.
There was a general recognition that everyone's Camino is different, and everyone will learn something different. I may not choose to make a Blackberry or a cell phone parts of my Camino, and I may not set as my goal to complete the Camino faster than anyone else, but it is not for me to judge the value of what others may bring with them, or what they may choose to do along the way. Certainly it is not part of the culture to label anyone as "nuts."
Jane says that she was uncomfortable with what she called "manufactured penury," when people with plenty of money set forth to walk the Camino. I would like to remind her that the Buddha was a prince, with every luxury, before he chose to leave his home and walk in search of his way.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An acerbic sense of humor and somewhat irreverent attitude make for entertaining reading., October 30, 2007

By 

Timecheck "backpack45.com - Camino Chronicle... (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago (Paperback)

The author is a good storyteller, and like most storytellers, might be accused of exaggerating for the sake of a good story. Did I say drama queen? No, I wouldn't do that, but don't take this book too much to heart. As you enjoy the writing, realize that if you do this walk there will be some physically demanding moments, but most people get through them. The people you meet, both the other pilgrims and the locals, will be the best part of the entire experience. This is true for the author as well, but many stories come from the hard parts.

Picture a woman at age fifty, divorced, the three kids out of the house, somewhat on a whim, plunging into the Camino de Santiago adventure. Word gets out about her plans via email and word of mouth, and women of similar vintage start contacting her, asking to go with her. In May of 2004 fourteen women meet in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, most strangers to each other, expecting Jane Christmas to lead them. The author's deft touch for describing the group dynamics are what make this book unique. Some of the time she is walking alone, but still feels the tug of the group.

She writes about more negative encounters with locals and other pilgrims than matches my experience, or that of most accounts I have read. I don't know what to make of that. It is easy to read encounters wrong if there are cultural differences. Our experience in the first-class hotels was that they were unbelievably gracious to scruffy pilgrims. But even Jane's negative encounters are related with a wry humor that makes them a good addition to the book.

I do recommend this book for entertaining reading, but be aware that she will trod on some toes, and there are those who may feel that some subjects deserve more respect. The author's style reminds me of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. If you enjoyed that, you are likely to enjoy this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jane in Spain Walks Plainly, With a Cane, May 31, 2010

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago (Paperback)

After enjoying Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy, about Jane Christmas's disastrous trip to Italy with her mother, I had to read more. While voyages of faith or chronicles of inner growth do not tempt me, I can't resist reading about a really horrible trip. What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim seemed promising.

It starts out with Christmas's impulsiveness causing her to blurt out on national (Canadian) TV that she is going to hike across Spain. In the same way that announcing to your friends that you are going to lose weight or quit smoking, she has more or less committed herself to the project before thinking it out. She's okay with that until several dozen people, friends, acquaintances, and strangers, inform her that they will be joining her on her trek. Of course the Camino de Santiago de Compostela is available for anyone to hike, but apparently these people expect her to organize and lead them across Spain. Suddenly a solitary journey of reflection has gotten out of control.

With the group pared down to Christmas plus fourteen similarly fifty-ish women, the hike commences with a strenuous climb through the Pyrenees. Tempers flare, relationships are strained, emotions unleashed. For the first week or two of the month-long trip, the women arrange themselves into various cliques and factions. Along the trail Christmas tries to simultaneously fend off unwanted companions, those who talk too much or complain, while trying to bond with more sympathetic travelers. It's a frustrating exercise that fails more often that it succeeds. The trail is no different than any workplace or schoolyard.

Eventually she gets fed up with the whole bunch and leaves them behind, returning to the solo journey she had originally envisioned. That turns out to be a little too scary though, when shady characters and sheer loneliness make her less choosy about hiking companions.

More spiritual readers will appreciate Christmas's inner growth, but I was most impressed by her eye-opening experiences in realizing that after weeks on the trail, she appeared to townspeople as a possibly dangerous bag lady. Her sunburned face, wild hair, and travel-stained backpack made locals give her a wide berth. Suddenly transformed in the eyes of others from middle class working mother to homeless and possibly deranged outsider, Christmas had to rethink her own attitudes.

I can't say that I would volunteer to go on a trip with Jane Christmas, but I look forward to reading about her further adventures.

(For a book by another Canadian that looks at the less spiritual side of the Camino Santiago de Compostela, try Taras Grescoe's The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists, in which he travels the Camino backwards.)