Sinning Across Spain

Sinning Across Spain Ailsa Piper 2012, Victory Books<br />I have to declare two things as I review this book. Firstly I knew Ailsa briefly in the late 1970s at university and secondly that I am thoroughly atheist. Normally I would not pick up a book with a title like this. It is only after I saw Ailsa interviewed on ABC TV that I became motivated to interact with her and the book.<br />Sinning Across Spain is an interesting treatise on actually walking a pilgrim path in Spain and as such it is well worth reading just for that information and the inspiration that Ailsa’s walking story imparts. <br />More importantly for me the book chronicles many aspects of Ailsa’s life and as such it contains a lot of frank personal experience that sweeps well beyond the scope of walking in Spain. Ailsa uses the premise of carrying sins of close friends and more abstract acquaintances very effectively. Ailsa employs a mixture of autobiographical content, history, myth, legend and literature to construct a blended narrative of her life that works well as a vehicle to interrogate wide issues of faith, truth, trust, culture and everyday philosophy. This narrative allows her to focus her lens on issues of fidelity, choice, religion and relationships. The title and subject matter suggests Roman Catholic ideology and while Ailsa does examine these issues the book is never didactic and never suggests Christianity as an ideal pathway to spiritual satisfaction. Indeed it seemed to me to promote an ideology that celebrates some of the cultural value of Christianity but not the literal interpretation the bible. Nor does it support biblical concepts of heaven, hell and sin as impositions of a God. Instead Ailsa examines the idea that we construct our own deity, values and penances. For Ailsa heaven is a hot day on the walking path. She finds almost overwhelming inspiration in nature where her spirit soars, empowered by her love of life and the love she finds in nearly everything around her. Ailsa recounts her pleasure in uncovering layers and this is a motif of her journey, an often solitary journey of walking, one foot after another and the gradual peeling back of layers, of history, of culture and of self. She mines rich veins of all three during her pilgrimage in Spain and later at home. Home is an important concept for Ailsa and this is evident throughout this book, indeed Ailsa reflects that home is her favourite word in any language. Mostly this is a book about love, about knowing love, of receiving love and giving love. <br />Sinning Across Spain also highlights Ailsa’s beautiful command of our language and this book is a celebration not only of walking but also of English firstly but also Spanish and the other languages she encounters on her pilgrimage. Poetry is featured often as the narrative unfolds and keen students of literature will really enjoy this aspect while less expert readers will encounter many linguistic white rabbits to chase down burrows. This borrowed and found linguistic richness is expertly augmented by Ailsa’s own capacity to construct elegant and powerful passages of poetic prose. This paragraph begs a quote but there are so many I will leave it to you potential readers to enjoy them fresh, as Ailsa intended.<br />Autobiography has never been a genre I have sought out though there are a few that I have read in recent years including the first two of Jon Doust’s ‘Boy’ series, Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are not the only fruit &amp; Why be happy when you could be normal and Simone Lazaroo’s The world waiting to be made. Ailsa Piper’s Sinning Across Spain sits proudly on my bookshelf with these other fine and awarded books. Like the other books mentioned above Sinning Across Spain is a book I will dip into again and again whenever I am looking for inspiration. I heartily recommend it to you. (Piper 2012)<br />Harry Hercock<br />Manjimup<br />November 2012<br /><br /><br /><br />Piper, Ailsa. 2012. Sinning across Spain : a walker's journey from Granada to Galicia. Carlton, Vic.: Victory Books.<br /><br />

"I woke pre-dawn on Susan's sofa, looked out at the clear sky then rolled over. Tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow I'll get up and watch the sunrise over the eternal city. And then i snuggled in, assuming I would have a tomorrow."<br /><br />There were many lines, phrases, thoughts, ideas throughout that spoke to me but this one got in there early and twined its way around my inner most self.

I enjoyed reading about 3/4 of this book but I started to get bored after that. I found it inspiring and interesting but too long and the author just went into too much day to day information which was OK in the beginning but you sort of got over it after a while and started thinking ........do I even care? So I gave up reading it............life is too short.

I’m not a great lover of ‘memoirs’ as such but I do love a book that allows a bit of arm chair travel.<br />I found Alisa Piper’s story so easy to read. I loved her musings, stories, reflections and most of all her descriptions of the countryside and people she met on the trail, which brought it all to life. I’m not sure it really entices me to walk the Camino like a pilgrim but it as a lover of bushwalking, I certainly agree with the feeling of becoming in tune with one’s self.<br />This book is a revised edition of the original 2012 version, with the inclusion of two chapters of the time around of her husband passing, which I found quite poignant.<br />Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read.<br />

Absolutely enthralled so far, after reading numerous books on walking The Way this one has a twist that's keeping it entertaining and educational. <br />I'm loving the inclusion of Spanish words and sayings other than the obvious ones yelled at pilgrims on a daily basis. <br />My favourite line so far which could have come out of any book but sits so beautifully in a book about walking, I just have to share as I find with most books by great authors.<br />"Misty rain was falling and I stepped with care across the cobbled courtyard's slick of squashed blossom". page 96

I took this journey with Ailsa as I lay on my couch marvelling at her courage. And I thought I was an adventurous traveller! Not only was it an enthralling read, but it touched me deeply with its wisdom. I was completely drawn in...laughed, cried, longed for it to never end and very glad I didn't have to do this arduous journey physically! The writing is beautiful, never overwritten and though the author clearly suffered at times, it never felt indulgent.

I frankly feel ripped off after buying this book. In the book store I was captivated by the author's attempt to heal herself after the death of her husband, by walking the Camino. I too am a widow and love to read other widow's journeys, yet the book does not include her husband's death because this book was published in 2012 and her husband died in 2014. Why is her husband's death even mentioned if it happened AFTER this book was written? For marketing? Disgusting and completely fraudulent.

A wonderful journey of self discovery during her Camino.

A very personal memoir of a non-believer walking Camino de Santiago as a burdener of sins of others.<br /><br />Being both a Catholic and a Camino walker myself, I can and can not relate to this work at the same time. And I do not think it is neither needed nor doable, as every person is unique, thus their way of thinking, feeling, percepting and describing their experiences is their own and should stay that way. <br />So how can Catholic relate into the way of a nonbelieving person trying to do a medieval practice of walking the sins of others on the also medieval journey? Honestly, I find it a strange idea- in the modern times this practice had been abandoned a long time ago; and also I think that doing that practice purely as psychological/sociological experiment somehow diminishes this tradition. That tradition (and the Catholic denomination) is also not part of authoress' spiritual self-expressing (so it is strange for me to do the aforementioned practice, too - as if I was doing the Buddhist practice and aspiring to understanding its depth). Yet, saying all that, I was also curious. So, how did you do that, how it was for you, how did it change you? Are the (burning, at least some of them) questions I have been wanting to ask the authoress. <br />I can say that the authoress obviously feels things quite deeply and is a person who can create deep relationships quickly (a precious gift). And camino has its own way to influence a person, and I can not recommend it enough to anyone who hears it gentle calling - you are never old enough, unprepared, weak or tired at heart to do it! It will change you for (your) good. <br />And camino did its work on the authoress and she did her homework of thinking, healing, pondering, meeting, creating and giving, too. While I do not believe in “taking” the sins of others for them, I do think that maybe the people who had “offered” their sins for the authoress’s way experienced some healing just because of opening about them (and any healing is good. I just hope their processes were completed, as some things need serious, deep healing and forgiving and changing).<br />So while I can not recommend this work as a spiritual practice of any sorts, I can say that it is an interesting memoir of very interesting journey.<br />And as for the camino friendships - oh yes, this is completely true. One goes as she/he is and receives this gift from the others, too. <br /><br />Go and try for yourself - and I am serious here. If the camino call you, just go. <br /><br /><br />

It's an interesting book, and the author has a gift for expressing more than just what she did, but also how she felt and the explorations of both herself and the land she travelled through. It is a curious thing to take on a Camino when you aren't a particularly religious person, but I suppose the opportunity to examine life from the perspective of spirituality is not something undertaken lightly, and she certainly experiences and investigates what faith might look like quite thoroughly. As the spouse of someone who used to duck off for a week or two here and there, leaving me to care for the children, I can relate to her husband. And I admire him for his ability to accommodate her need to be off and doing without him so stoically. It is only after his death that she discovers that at least once, having cheerfully and enthusiastically sent her off on some expedition or other, he went to a favourite cafe and cried over her departure. I could never be that stoic, try as I might to acknowledge that he had the right to live his life according to what he loved to do and I shouldn't try to change him, and that 3 children and a wife would neither enjoy nor enrich a spartan climbing expedition to outback Australia in the middle of summer. The idea that they enjoy themselves far more without you is hard to stomach. Certainly, despite temptation, she never suggests for a moment that the bond with her husband is anything but strong - the comfort she finds in their relationship is clear. But the assumption that he will keep the homefires burning until she returns ..... I struggle with that idea that having two such separate lives is reasonable. But it is one interesting aspect of a thought provoking account of her experiences.