A Pilgrimage to Eternity

From the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, a pilgrimage to find religion--or truth, or the way--that pleasingly blends memoir, travelogue, and history. The latest from Egan (The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero, 2016, etc.) will make readers want to make a journey of their own. In a fascinating page-turner, the author chronicles his travels, mostly via foot but also via car and train, along the Via Francigena, a 1,200-mile medieval route that runs from Canterbury to Rome, where he sought an audience with "a pope with one working lung who is struggling to hold together the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics through the worst crisis in half a millennium." Egan traversed this route in search of God or some type of significant spiritual experience. A skeptic by nature and Catholic by baptism, he realized that he needed to decide what he believes or admit what he does not. "I start [the journey] as a father, a husband, an American deeply troubled by the empty drift of our country," he writes. "And for the next thousand miles or so, I will try to be a pilgrim." Any pilgrimage is a rough test of faith and one of the most unpredictable and independent adventures on which to embark. Along for the ride on this quest are St. Augustine, St. Paul, Joan of Arc, St. Francis, and Oscar Wilde, among others. Egan's Jesuit education inevitably crept into his mind during his stays at monasteries and visits to cathedrals to view their relics and learn about the events and myths that comprise their histories. Pope Francis, a man who embraces reason and promotes peer-reviewed science, brings the author a sense of hope after the church's decades of inflexible leadership. Finding people and places warm and welcoming in each village and city, allowing himself to be amazed, lingering to rest blistered feet, and discovering soul-stirring spots--all this kept him pushing on, and readers will be thankful for his determination. A joy and a privilege to read.

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August 5, 2019
In this engaging but underdeveloped travelogue and exploration of European Christianity, journalist Egan (The Worst Hard Time) undertakes a 1,000-mile pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome along the Via Francigena, a pilgrim’s trek well-known during medieval times. Egan’s reflections on faith, religion, and history are informed by his own scholarship, but mainly by the religious leaders, fellow pilgrims, and locals he meets along his journey. He encourages readers to confront uncomfortable truths about violence done in the name of Christianity and to consider the waning of Christian power worldwide. Unfortunately, Egan’s attempts at levity often miss, as when the Archbishop of Canterbury whimpers and is “so self-effacing you want to slap him” and that Martin Luther’s marriage to Katharina perplexes because she was younger “and much more attractive” than “jowly, raisin-eyed” Martin. The work also repeatedly fails to distinguish between Christianity and the wider world of religion and faith, as Egan makes sweeping generalizations that, in practice, only apply to Christian Europeans. For example, Egan implies that “literacy in the spiritual canon,” and the need to “understand religion” pertains only to Christian theology or Catholic history, and glaringly never includes a discussion of European Islam or Judaism. Readers will also question Egan’s declension narrative equating a thriving spiritual Europe with a hegemonically Christian one. While Egan’s loose writing style works well as a travel narrative, his narrow perspective limits this work as a meditation on 21st-century Christian faith and practice.

October 1, 2019

What impact might a pilgrimage on the Via Grancigena, where one visits historical religious sites on a 1,000-mile journey from Canterbury to Rome, have on one's faith perspective? Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and noted author on historical figures and events Egan (The Worst Hard Time; The Immortal Irishman) pens a reflective and personal work about key events in Christianity and people associated with them. Egan writes as someone who was raised Roman Catholic, but who has experienced doubt as his younger brother and others were sexually abused by a local priest. Yet, now, after many years, he takes this pilgrimage to explore European Christian history (with all its major flaws) with some skepticism but also openness. In so doing, he guides readers along his journey, so they can reflect on his experiences and their own. VERDICT Readers with interest in the history of Christianity, theology, or apologetics will find this book useful.--John Jaeger, Johnson Univ., Knoxville, TN

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2019
After arriving with Chaucer at Canterbury and honoring the holy blisful martir, you could continue to Rome on the Via Francigena, whose far greater length transects many more points of interest, historic and contemporary, en route. Carnegie Medal winner (for Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, 2012) Egan used an existing guidebook for the big trek, then wrote about his particular journey; intrigued readers should pick up both books, but Egan should be read first. His narrative intertwines three thick strands?one historical, about what has happened along the Via Francigena; one reportorial, about present-day circumstances and observations; one personal, about Egan's Catholic family's experiences with the church. He presents the delightful story of Dom Perignon, the monk who invented champagne; profiles striking personalities met on the road, and delves into his mother's frustrated life, a boy-molesting priest and a victim's suicide, and the constant question of whether and just what he believes. At the end, he meets Pope Francis, whom he admires, and achieves profound understanding of the lesson of pilgrimage: there is no way; walking makes the way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)