The Camino

A Journey of the Spirit

By: Shirley MacLaine

Narrated by: Shirley MacLaine

Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

It has been nearly five decades since Shirley MacLaine commenced her brave and public commitment to chronicling her personal quest for spiritual understanding. Now Shirley is back - with her most breathtakingly powerful and unique book yet.

The Camino is the story of a riveting odyssey that began with a pair of anonymous handwritten letters imploring Shirley to make a difficult pilgrimage along the Santiago de Compostela Camino in Spain. Throughout history, countless pilgrims have taken up the trail. It is an ancient - and allegedly enchanted - pilgrimage. People from St. Francis of Assisi to Dante and Chaucer have taken the journey - a nearly 500-mile trek across highways, mountains, cities and fields.

For Shirley, the Camino was both an intense spiritual and physical challenge. For a woman in her sixth decade, completing such a grueling trip on foot in 30 days at 20 miles per day was remarkable. But even more astounding was her spiritual route: back thousands of years, through past lives to the very origin of the universe.

With rich insight, humility, and grace, The Camino promises listeners the journey of a thousand lifetimes.

©2000 Shirley MacLaine (P)2000 Simon & Schuster

Great listen - captivating

Listened while on my treadmill. Shirley's voice is absolutely marvelous. Appreciate her honesty and detail. Highly recommend this thoughtful read.

Spiritual Guidance

Shirley's experience has provided me with a heightened desire to continue on my own spiritual journey. I would love to meet her in person to learn more about her experiences.

Thank you Shirley.

I'm moved beyond words.

I've never been one to follow some actor or actress, but after listening to this I would dearly love to speak with this wonderful woman about her experience and additional thoughts. this wad a treat!!!

spiritual camino

This is as much of a story of an individual's journey as it is a trek across the Camino de Santiago. Fascinating. Thought provoking. Intriguing. Interesting. Shirley MacLaine is truly a gifted (blessed) artist and storyteller.

A good account of traveling the Camino

I read this book because I've had an interest in the Camino for some time - not enough to do it myself, but....
I did go to Santiago de Compostela a few years ago and visited the Cathedral and the town, but I did it the easy way on a day trip from a cruise.
I've known of MacLaine's interest in things spiritual and esoteric for some time and have read some of her previous books. This one doesn't disappoint, although she does get "way out there" in parts of it. She deviates from the story of walking the Camino in recounting the events of a past life in Lemuria. I reamain a skeptic on this aspect of the narrative, but she writes and speaks about it with conviction. Who knows - maybe she's right. I especially enjoyed hearing this book in her voice.

Loved it!

I love hearing this author read her works. My favorite parts were her experiences in Atlantis and Lemuria.

Loved it Despite Some Rambling

If you are looking for a travel guide to the Camino, look elsewhere, as that's not this book's purpose. MacLaine introduces the book by saying that the Camino traverses ley lines that provoke deep insights and epiphanies in those who walk it, and the book focuses on how those realizations arose in MacLaine along her journey. I thoroughly enjoyed this book until Ch 6-8 when she talks about dreaming of her past life as a Lemurian who went to Atlantis and how the human race evolved from that civilization. That story had some interesting aspects, but I wish she hadn't spent three chapters on it; just one would have been sufficient for me. Whether her dreams were also past life recollections is sort of beside the point as far as I'm concerned because no one ever knows the truth about mystical experiences; they are in the mind and spirit of the beholder. I enjoyed the interweaving of her dreams with the personal insights she experienced while walking the Camino. She does a good job of portraying the interesting characters she met along the way, as well as her efforts to outsmart the press, who hounded her for much of her walk. I would say if you have an open mind and enjoy books that interweave the mystical and the real, you'll probably enjoy this book.

love it! very inspiring!

love her motivation and goal oriented! She narrated it beautifully. her journey itself is inspiring !

Touched by her words

Your quest physical and emotional inspired. Me. Your story brings up deep feelings and knowingness. Thank you my sister.

Disappointing

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I bought this book to live vicariously through another's inspirational hike. It was unfortunate for Shirley that she was hounded by the press. Shirley's descriptions of her hallucinations were disturbing and not at all thought provoking. She didn't describe how the hike changed her personally. I would have left out full descriptions of her hallucinations and focused more on what she saw and felt along the trail, the poverty, the kindness, the landscape, her physical challenges, etc.

Would you ever listen to anything by Shirley MacLaine again?

Yes.

Which scene was your favorite?

Shirley was walking along the trail and being an avid talker, it seems she couldn't handle the self-silence and started speaking to objects. She conversed with a stick and it agreed to be her walking companion, very funny.

Did The Camino inspire you to do anything?

Yes, find another book about hiking the Camino.

Any additional comments?

I love eccentric people, but Shirley's hallucinations were better left in the background, perhaps a couple of sentences describing how these were a result of a hard day's trek.