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Customer Rating:
I have read about a 1/3 of the book and will update the review upon completion. I have skimmed enough of it to provide some thoughts. First, you need the proper mindset to read it. For those us without a motorcycle or the time to journey as Neil has done, his travels offer a certain appeal. He comes across as a loner under stress. I think many of us can relate to the feeling of insecurity and isolation buried within us. I do believe he could have written this with a better flow for the reader and left out the letters to brutus to a large extent - after all, who cares?

I think his anti-American bias is a fuction of his growing up in Canada - Canadians are thought of as 2nd class to the US. Musically, success and presige in Canada is judged by the band's success in the US. Ask Triumph or any Canadian band how small time the scene is up there. So some American '[...] envy' on the part of Neil is understandable.

I don't think Neil has to apologize for his smoking, discontent for police or even his drug dealing friend. He's probably more a liberal free thinker who is uncomfortable in social settings. Based on his stature, he probably does feel somewhat above the law. These questions of morality are for Neil to ponder.

Neil is what he is, a great drummer and lyricist, who capitalized on his many talents to the fullest extent possible. But at the end of the day he's just a guy going through a huge mid-life crisis. Unfortunately, this leaves the reader sympathetic but equally ambivalent about the road less traveled.

Moving is healing

Customer Rating:
I had a similiar story: When my mom (last parent) died in 07 it took me over 3 months fromn the time of her death to come up from LA and bury her.

Afterwards I embarked on a 46 day journey to Canada--I have since used the road as my healer.

I am still trying to piece together life post parents.

God bless Mr. Peart and his incredible book and for giving us 34 years of incredible music.

Meet Mr. Peart the man...not the legend.

Customer Rating:
When you listen to a band for a long time and pretty much idolize them in your adolescence you get the know them fairly well in some ways, but not in others. Like many Rush fans I have gotten to know the public persona of Neil Peart along with his partners Geddy and Alex. You know the one, the rock and roll intellectual, the mercurial demi-god of the basement drummer, the philosopher, the traveler, the legend.
Well here we get to see the real man behind it all, torn open by personal loss and desperate to find something in life worth hanging on to, and he's invited us all along to share in the journey.
In some ways that public image is still there. Peart is very much the intellectual, the examiner, the sort of guy who logically likes to take things apart and figure them out. But we also get the flesh and blood human. He drinks. He smokes. He swears. At times he comes across as a decent, friendly fellow, and at others a bit of a jerk. In other words a regular person just like the rest of us, trying to deal with tragedy and loss the best he can.
As the sort of person who had posters of the band on my bedroom wall in my teenage years, it's hard for me to say how someone who is unfamiliar with the band would react to this work. But as someone who has, as most of us have, dealt with loss in many of its forms, I found a personal connection with this book. I saw in it the familiar sign posts that many of us go through with the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship. It's one man's perspective on the grieving process, but there are universal themes to be found here.

How odd with the bad reviews, though it is a brilliant book

Customer Rating:
This is well-written and comes from the heart. I am a RUSH fan(atic) so of course I wanted to read this book. At first I read all of the reviews on this page - mostly the bad ones was interesting. Yes, he is after the American people all right. And after these reviews I realize he is right. What small-minded people... "Oh he doesn't like us but we have made his fortune - he should be greatful". I am not an American and now I pretty much take Neil's side when it comes to the critisism of the people. I would not be very fond of people who were so arrogant to think that they were responsible for all of my talent and fortune either.

Funny to see that all of the bad reviews comes from offended American people who can't take critisism. Well, it is okay to kill people in the name of Godd too, isn't it? Jesus Crist...

Anyway, I really did like this book. It is right that it gets some how boring at some points (it is self biographical - what can you expect?) but it is well-written. I really admire that he seems to make everything important and tries not to take anything for granted (family, friends, a good meal, the trees etc.) and if you can get over your self-rightous, arrogant, and offended mind you will see that the man's got a point. Musicians can't lie on their knees for fans and be begging and thankful all of the time. Fans can be a pain in the butt sometimes. Like friends can be the same.

Read the book as an experience - and stop being offended and so bloody patriotic about everything.

Travels On The Boring Road

Customer Rating:
Neil reveals a lot about himself which I don't think he intended to do in this book. He comes off as being an elitist in a lot of ways. He almost seems like he wants to be Hemingway, with his drinking, smoking and just doing his own crazy travels with little regards for anything else. I think his digs into America were very revealing too about himself. Yet, he doesn't seem to have a problem with his best friend being a drug dealer; or that he was never officially married to Jackie (common law wife of 22 years); then jumps into a relationship and marriage fairly quickly to Carrie; that he breaks speeding law constantly on his BMW bike and that he is only self consumed with himself and no one else outside his little small bubble of friends/family.

I love Rush and I think Neil is awesome at his craft, but I'm not jumping on board with everything he does or puts out. This book took me forever to read because it was really boring at times with his letters to Brutus and his ramblings of his travels which were very dry and repetitive. This is not a self help book for someone who has had a similar tragedy in their life. This book could have been cut down to a fourth of the pages written and accomplished the same thing and kept me interested.

The only thing I really got out of this book was that it probably takes longer for you to get on with your life when you have an unlimited bank account to be able to stop working. In Neil's case, it allowed him to travel all over North America on his BMW bike and spend the winter months walking on snow shoes around the lake at his house in Quebec. I believe all this free time allowed him to think more and more about things and feel sorry for himself. I think the average "fat" American, which he ran into on his travels, would probably have to go to work shortly after this type of tragedy and not be able to take two years off. Not that getting over this would be easy for anyone, but I think being forced into the work environment would eventually allow distractions in your life to stop you from thinking 24/7 about the tragedies. Neil didn't have this type of distraction and traveling alone only allowed him to dwell more and more on the tragedies in his.

I by no means am putting Neil down for what he had to deal with, but I am critical of the dribble he put into this book. I don't think if you are not a hardcore Rush fan or a friend/acquaintance of Neil's you would get much out of this book. I think a lot of the praise this book gets is because it's "Neil Peart" and the tragedy he had to deal with and not because this is a particularly good book.