Rating: 
Summary: Burning daylight on a mountain ridge.
Review: No doubt many readers will compare this account of thruhiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine with Bill Bryson's 1996 bestseller, A WALK IN THE WOODS, but the two books are quite different. Whereas the reality of Bryson's humorous account of hiking the trail ends in boredom, disappointment, and a sense of failure, Rubin's more earnest "pilgrimage" ends with a bittersweet sense of accomplishment, mixed with fleeting fellowship along "the beaten path." I recommend reading both books. For me, however, Rubin better succeeds in bringing his Appalachian Trail experience to life."I've done it," Rubin writes, as he starts his six-month hike of the trail, "--gotten clean away. I'm no longer the husband kissing his wife goodbye, an embarrassing midlife spectacle to friends and family. I'm the Rhymin' Worm, solitary pilgrim" (p. 9). Like most thruhikers looking for something missing from life, 38-year-old Rubin walks the trail for "some time to think," and to leave behind all the "obligations" and the "minute-by-minute demands of work" (p. 40), and somewhat sadly, his home without feeling--"not love, not compassion, not happiness, not pride, not excitement, only anger and remorse" (p. 182). Rubin learns, while hiking the trail, that each day passes "deliberately, unfolding slowly, and in detail, like a stop-action film of a flower blooming" (p. 55), a valuable discovery in itself. Along the way, he experiences "Fellowship with the Wilderness," and unexpectedly encounters plenty of bad weather, bears, snakes, a moose, a naked hiker, a burned Bible, Walt Whitman, blistered feet, and bad karma. He also enjoys the companionship of a truly memorable cast of fellow hikers, RockDancer, Trail Snail, Fiddlehead, Happy Feet, Loon, Tonic, Lost Soul, and Time to Fly. My only criticism of Rubin's book is that it ends with a few off-trail loose ends. But I enjoyed this book so much I was sorry to reach the end of THE BEATEN PATH. G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: Would have liked a little less self-involvement
Review: On the Beaten Path was a little disappointing to me, having read A Walk In the Woods last year. Bryson is a writer, and Rubin is a guy who wrote a book. Not a bad book, but it was too full of the author, how unhappy he was with his old job (I mean, isn't practically everybody?), is he really going to go back to his wife. I gather there was a lot of doubt in that area when he set out on the trail. So, if nothing else, I think the book is pretty embarrassing to Mrs. Rubin, the whole world now knowing that her husband was only luke-warm about their marriage. But, hey, just so he gets to spill his guts, who cares how it affects anybody else? I wanted to read one book about the Trail that was written by someone who had done the whole thing, just in case there was some fascinating aspect that Bryson left out of his book. Rubin does tell about rocky parts on the northern end, but the whole book reads like a "fact book" about the trail, except when he starts to whine about how he didn't like his job and wasn't sure he had the perfect marriage. How many AT books do you want to read? If the answer is "one great one," read Bryson's book. This one is just-another-book.
Rating:
Summary: a walk on the, umm, wide side
Review: The scope of this book might have been a little broad for me. I've been trying for a couple of days to figure out what my problem with the book was, and can't come up with a good enough answer to drop my rating. I think perhaps Rubin covers a lot more ground (ahem) than I would have liked, and none of it particularly thoroughly. This is not a personal journal, probing into profound issues of relationships or the human psyche. It's not an environmental manifesto, a meditation on the beauty of the Appalachians, a nuts-and-bolts description of the mechanics of trail life, or an investigation of the personalities who undertake a thruhike. Rubin's book is, instead, a pretty straightforward diary of the trip, honest but superficial on personal matters, hit-and-miss on interpersonal matters, and pretty spare on natural matters. But here's why I think I'm missing the, errr, boot on this one: This is not a book by, about, or for those "reacreational backpackers" Rubin seems to hold in mild disdain (not to worry: he holds himself and everyone else in mild disdain, as well). I am one of those recreational backpackers, and this book didn't deliver the kind of stuff I would have preferred. A more focused treatment might have been easier for me to like--an AT version of version of one of Colin Fletcher's journals, maybe, or a Tracy Kidder-style profile of a set of thruhikers would have been more engaging. But that's not what Rubin was writing, and I can hardly fault him for not writing the book I wanted to read. What he did write is a very well-written, complete, well-paced, largely thorough narrative about his hike. I like the fact that he could never fully describe the reason or result that made this a "pilgrimage," because sometimes life lessons don't serve themselves up like that. I like Rubin's self-effacing honesty, because in it I recognized where I could be personally and professionally in years to come. I rather suspect I might like Rubin himself. And while I didn't love the book, I did like it, and I'll heartily recommend it to anyone with an open mind about what a trail journal can be. (Note for the author/publisher: in the paperback, add a postscript explaining how Rubin ended up working for the AT Conference. The absence of that detail made me nuts.)
Rating: 
Summary: Buh...
Review: There's a mean-spirited thread running through this book that left me feeling like I was something I didn't want to be a part of, whether it was trashing work, trashing society, calling out people's innermost feelings (as he imagines them) or listing out who won't make it and why. At 37, he starts out a bitter old man and finishes up... a bitter old man who isn't finished hiding from life yet.
Read Jean Deeds' "There Are Mountains To Climb" to shrug off the effects of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: If you liked A Walk in the Woods, you'll love this one!
Review: This book will inevitably be compared to Bill Bryson's recent book about hiking the Appalachian Trail, A Walk in the Woods. This book is far superior. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Walk, but it was mostly just an amusement, without any depth or real insight. Rubin's book gives a far more comprehensive and even realistic account of hiking the AT. For one thing, Rubin actually hiked the entire trail, while Bryson hiked about half--still quite an accomplishment. Bryson's hike is a lark, a way to find another topic to write about. But for Rubin, hiking the AT was far more personal and his reasons for more complicated. That's what we learn about, as we also discover the wonderful, oddball culture that makes the trail so unique.
Rating:
Summary: An honest book about a personal journey
Review: This is a good book that lets you not only see what a thru-hiker sees, but also feel what a thru-hiker feels. It is very well written too. Rueben, being a former editor, knows where to stop and what to cut out from a book (sometimes this is not as easy to do as it seems). Rueben's "pilgrimage" is as much a personal, even spiritual journey as it is a physical one. It is not fair to even mention this book in the same sentence with Bryson's. Rueben's hike, as well as his book, is a much more sincere effort. For one thing, he hiked the whole AT. For another, he hiked the AT because it was a pilgrimage for him, not because he just wanted to get some material for his next book. Bryson, on the other hand, only finished less than 40% of the AT, and he wanted nothing but just some material for his next book. Rueben's journey is a triumph whereas Bryson's is a failure. Rueben is consistent throughout his book in writing and storytelling, whereas the second half of Bryson's book ultimately falls into some random, chaotic and awkwardly put together bits and pieces (can you say hypothermia?) Comparing this book with those of Colin Fletcher who certainly had some long hikes would be more appropriate. There are two differences between the two (over-simplifyingly): 1. Rueben is a better writer and editor, while Fletcher goes on and on and on, Rueben knows how to write a compact yet insightful book; 2. Fletch is a true naturalist and truly enjoys the outdoors, whereas for Rueben, the hike was just a vehicle on which he hopes to carry out his personal and spiritual search.
|
