What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim

A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago de Compostela

By: Jane Christmas

Narrated by: Jane Christmas

To celebrate her 50th birthday and face the challenges of midlife, 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 listener will forget.

©2007 Jane Christmas (P)2015 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

the author's authenticity

I enjoyed the great deal of self-reflection and also the historical research that the writer inserted so keenly into this effort

Must read for peregrinas

I'm getting ready for my first Camino and I was so happy to find this book. Jane is a woman after my heart. She's practical, a little cynical but with a great sense of humor. I totally enjoyed her journey and can't wait to start mine.

Entertaining and inspiring

We are considering walking The Camino and chose this book at random out of the many offered. I loved this book! The author shared her adventure with humor and colorful stories. I am more inclined to head out on Camino now after listening to her book and I loved that she narrated it. I was sad when it ended!

Kept my interest.

Loved it, kept my interest, good voice inflection. lots of life nuggets presented that gets one thinking which I assume was the point of the book.

LISTEN TO THIS BOOK if you like irreverent humor!

If you're looking for a travel guide, or a new-agey uber positive account of the Camino de Santiago, this is probably not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you can appreciate a sharp, irreverent sense of humor and don't mind the occasional swear word, then you will enjoy this brutally honest description of the trials and tribulations Jane Christmas encountered when she took a very long walk on a whim.

To celebrate her 50th birthday, Jane Christmas announced (on CBC radio) that she was going to walk the Camino de Santiago. Admittedly, she didn't have a firm idea of what this might entail at the time. Nor did she foresee the reaction her announcement would engender. Soon, a group of women had contacted her wanting to join in the fun.



Things sort of snowballed from there, and Jane found herself leading a group of middle-aged women along this pilgrimage. Given that Jane is intolerant of stupidity and shallowness, she soon found the dynamics of the group difficult to bear and eventually she broke off from the group to go it alone. That solved some problems, but also confronted Jane with new issues to overcome, including loneliness and the sheer discomfort of such a long walk. 



Her observations are sharp and sometimes less than kind, but Jane is also aware of her own shortcomings, too. The author narrated it herself. Her other memoirs ("The Pelee Project," "Incontinent on the Continent" and "And Then There Were Nuns") were narrated by actors. Some might prefer the professional narration, but I liked both - it is fun to hear her voice her own work.

An Intimate Expose of Jane's Camino

I initially found myself wondering about Jane's cynical discriptive of her Camino experience. This said however her story is timeless, completely applicable even today. Her daily escapades kept me captivated and I must say that her Camino ended up being a thoroughly enjoyable read. Thanks for taking me along! A definite should read prior to embarking upon your own Camino adventure.

Real, honest experience

I really enjoyed this book. It had just enough humor and realness mixed in with important information about what walking the camino is like.

Missed the mark

I’ve walked three Caminos and read several books about the Camino. This is not a bad book. The writing is good, has humor and emotion although it did not tug my heartstrings or bring tears to my eyes. The guidebook-type interjections at some points were distracting and did not move the story along. For me like some other reviewers I was disappointed that the author did not undergo transformation as a result of the suffering she experienced as a pilgrim. Many of the lessons learned on the Camino are not apparent until much later but even in her epilogue she states gratefulness to God but does not describe transformation. Her narration was good but most of the time she sounded like she was reading instead of telling her personal story. It’s an entertaining read but not compelling.

enjoyed very much!

highly recommend, well written and read.great humor. read as a part of preparing for my Camino

Hyper-Critical, Name-Calling Narcissist

What disappointed you about What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim?

I can't believe I wasted 11+ hours of my life (and the significant portion of a beautiful road trip) waiting for this book to get better and to redeem itself. It did not. First of all, I NEVER want to hear the word "pilgrim" ever again. How many times do you need to use it?!

The author is a judgemental goon who spends more time ragging on the people around her than recognizing and admitting flaws within herself. It's no wonder she can't stand walking 22 km a day alone, she can hardly stand herself when she has no one else to criticize. She calls someone an "orca-sized, fat, snoring Spanish man", calls someone else Hitler's sister and a fat lazy cow. She criticizes Spaniards for pronouncing their c's as th's, saying that it sounds like a speech impediment. She constantly comments on people's weight and inadequacy. She makes such a huge deal about always having to take the hard road in life, and how she's constantly surrounded by difficult people, but she doesn't even give them a chance; she can't look past someone's weight, race or language to appreciate the human being underneath. She's even ungrateful when she receives three free meals from a kitchen, and explicitly says she is.

This is a wildly superficial story about how much better cafe con leche is out of porcelain rather than paper cups, and being snobby about expensive meals and fancy hotels. Even the psychic offers no shift in perspective. It's laid out in the beginning, and it's all so literal, it's not even suspenseful or interesting. She leaves on her pilgrimage absolutely obsessed with herself, and she comes home obsessed with a man. Even her children suffer from her vanity. She makes a four week trip and one week of companionship sound like a year-long trek and long-term, committed relationship. It's dramatic and desperate. And in the end, all it makes her question are her nail and hair appointments, and the use of her car. Big deal.

This book is not insightful at all. I don't always review books, but I went out of my way to take notes about the things that irked me about this book, so I could warn people who are looking for a deep exploration of self while on a physical journey, which is what I was really hoping for - you won't find it in this book.

What was most disappointing about Jane Christmas’s story?

I was hoping for something insightful. I was expecting to be foretold a fascinating experience by a psychic, how a woman's perspective shifted while on a literal trail to find herself on the journey of life. I expected struggle but I did NOT expect to be spoon fed some garbage narrative of a hyper-critical narcissist who spends half the book ragging on other people instead of looking inwards.

Did Jane Christmas do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Not at all. She hardly feeds you any personal information about the other characters. They're identified by her inane, petty judgements of them: the one that talks to much, the one that's fat and snores, etc. And when it comes to describing herself, of course the only character flaw she has is that she had to have her passport photo taken four times.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The only thing it taught me is that if people like her are traveling the Camino, I don't want to do it. Not if all it's about is racing for the best beds, or where to get the next cafe con leche that's served in porcelain.

Any additional comments?

Save your money. I wish I could have my time and book credit back for this one.