Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road

Neil Peart

Jun 2002 · ECW Press

About this ebook

Within a ten-month period, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. This memoir tells of the sense of personal devastation that led him on a 55,000-mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again.

Peart’s journey of self-exile and exploration chronicle his personal odyssey and include stories of reuniting with friends and family, grieving, and reminiscing. He recorded with dazzling artistry, the enormous range of his travel adventures, from the mountains to the seas, from the deserts to the Arctic ice, and the memorable people who contributed to his healing.

Ghost Rider is a brilliantly written, and ultimately triumphant narrative memoir from a gifted writer and the drummer and lyricist of the legendary rock band Rush.

Ratings and reviews

After I understood the pain of the lyrics on the song Vapor Trails, I was very compelled to read this book and share the reasons for such a painfully written song. I can now see why and how it was written. I'm not much of a book person but I couldn't put this down. I have one child, a daughter also and I can't even begin to imagine how I could go on without her. It takes a very special person to have lost what he lost and somehow find a way to move forward. Interesting.

I feel the story could have been told in a more concise way. I understand he lost a lot, but he is a snob and could afford the time it took to heal. Others aren't that fortunate. I don't get the sense he realizes that at all.

Such a personal account its hard to pick holes. A compelling account of one man's journey from misery back to happiness, perhaps a tad to long and then to short at the end when the meeting and romancing of Carrie is just a few lines. But again a privilege to be allowed into such a personal time in his life.

About the author

Neil Peart was the drummer and lyricist for the legendary band Rush, and author of Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, and The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa.