In this irreverent, ruminative adventure, Jack Hitt sets out to walk the 500 miles along the pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Off the Road charts the serendipitous encounters of another American innocent abroad, only this one submits to the rigorous traditions of Europe's oldest form of packaged tour. The result is a comic yet sympathetic attempt to understand the vanishing role of religion in modern life.
Off the Road is an unforgettable tour of the sites that people believe God once touched: the strange fortress said to contain the real secret Adam learned when he bit the apple; the miraculous chickens of the fourteenth century whose descendants still dance in the church of Santo Domingo; the sites associated with the murderous monks known as the Knights Templar; and the places housing relics ranging from a vial of the Virgin Mary's milk to a sheet of Saint …
In this irreverent, ruminative adventure, Jack Hitt sets out to walk the 500 miles along the pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Off the Road charts the serendipitous encounters of another American innocent abroad, only this one submits to the rigorous traditions of Europe's oldest form of packaged tour. The result is a comic yet sympathetic attempt to understand the vanishing role of religion in modern life.
Off the Road is an unforgettable tour of the sites that people believe God once touched: the strange fortress said to contain the real secret Adam learned when he bit the apple; the miraculous chickens of the fourteenth century whose descendants still dance in the church of Santo Domingo; the sites associated with the murderous monks known as the Knights Templar; and the places housing relics ranging from a vial of the Virgin Mary's milk to a sheet of Saint Bartholomew's skin.
Along the way, in small-town shelters or lost among Spanish mountains, Jack Hitt finds himself persevering by day and bunking down by night with an unlikely cast of fellows - a Flemish film crew, a drunken gypsy, a draconian Belgian air force officer, a man who speaks no languages, a one-legged pilgrim, and a Welsh family with a mule.
Off the Road rediscovers the warm hilarity that underlies the solemn rituals of the past. In the day-to-day grind of walking under a hot Spanish sun, Jack Hitt and his smelly cohorts not only find occasional good meals and dry shelter, but they also stumble upon some fresh ideas about old-time zealotry and modern belief. Anyone disturbed by America's sense of a disposable past will relish the way this offbeat journey through history turns into a provocative rethinking of the present.
En mi opinión, Hitt divaga demasiado y llena páginas y más páginas con información contextual que acaba aburriendo soberanamente y distrayendo del relato en sí mismo. Se ha documentado enormemente y no quiere que haya sido en vano, así que nos obliga a tragarnos un montón de datos y teorías que no vienen a cuento.
Por otro lado, pronto queda claro que se arrepiente de hacer el Camino y que se esfuerza por buscar un motivo para justificarse ante sí mismo.
Lo que sí me ha llamado la atención en positivo es la posibilidad de poder conocer un poco cómo era hacer el Camino de Santiago en 1992, antes de la primera gran campaña de promoción y cuando prácticamente no estaba explotado.
