This past weekend in my hotel in El Paso Illinois, I finished reading Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. I should make it clear up front that I am not a huge Rush fan. I like Rush just fine, but am not an avid fan who looks for deep meanings in every word and time change. I am a huge fan of motorcycles though and when I discovered this book existed I wanted to read it.

This is one of the books that took me a long time to read, over a year. Not because the book is bad, not at all. Simply put, this book is amazing. But this is a story that is written, at least in the beginning, by a shattered man. Neil lost his 19 year old daughter to a car accident and then his common law wife of 22 years a mere 14 months later. He writes in the probably the most honest voice I’ve ever read and it brings the pain that is associated with true honesty. I found the emotion conveyed by Neil’s writing to be so raw and painful, I took breaks in between reading sessions. That’s not to say the entire book is one big festival of sadness. Healing Road is part of the title after all. And I will say the last chapter made me grin like a fool.

I debated on how much to say about this book and decided on “not much.” I just want you to know it exists. I want you to know it should be read. It is a book of incredible sadness and incredible happiness.

It should not be missed.