Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy

genre: memoir

As much as I love traveling, I do not tend to pick up travel memoirs.  I'd rather DO the traveling than read about someone else doing it.  But a friend recommended this and I'm glad I picked it up - because as much as it's about a father and son walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, it's also about being a parent to a young adult and the long process of growing up.

There is a certain amount of repetition, just because what they really do, every day, is get up and walk a super long time and then stop somewhere for the night.  I mean, that's the book, in some ways.  But it's also about what Andrew and Sam talk about, how they struggle and stretch, the friends they make and the things they see on the miles they pass.  A lot of what Andrew processes is his own stuff and how that stuff impacts how he sees Sam.  Is Sam a pill a lot of the time?  He is.  But he rings true and by the end, even I'm proud of how he's showing up.  There are some beautiful depictions of this celebrated trail - add to that a sometimes blunt depiction of the reality of this kind of travel and it made for an interesting read.