[Review]: Ghost Rider by Neil Peart
This book is the retelling of the motorcycle journey Peart took in the aftermath of his daughter and wife dying within 12 months of each other. The travelogue was interesting - he mostly traveled the non-interstate highways across the Western Canada, Western US and Mexico. He really laid his emotions out on the page. It gave great insight to see how he dealt with and began to overcome the grief. It also explained how his healing led back to many aspects of his life he had set aside, including the trail back to reforming Rush. Reading this really showed me how “dead” Rush was in those days. He wasn’t drumming at all for a couple of years.
One of the reasons I hadn’t made a real effort to read it was that I was under the impression he didn’t address the band’s situation in it. I thought it was straight travelogue only. My impression is that he treats his Rush work as “business only” and wasn’t particularly connected to Alex and Geddy when not working. I was totally wrong about the relationship aspects of this.
My only quibble is that through the third quarter of the book he relied more on reprinting letters and journal entries over actual narrative. His use elsewhere was more balanced and effective. I really need to give the Vapor Trails album a new listen given this context.
Recommended for Rush fans and armchair travelers.