Book Review: Happiness is That Way
Happiness is That Way: 55 Days on the Camino Via de la Plata
by Cici Edwards-Jensen and Mike Jensen
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2023
239 pages
on Goodreads
Review by Joseph A. Curro, Jr. | Arlington, MA
Happiness is That Way is a dueling memoir by an Australian husband and wife who decide to tackle the Via de la Plata as their first Camino. The account alternates between first-person narratives by each author.
Each writes from their own point of view, often to great effect. For example, the couple drag themselves into a small village during a rainstorm, desperate to find lodging. They split up, with Mike setting off to investigate a practically abandoned hotel with no heat or hot water and engaging in a plea to allow him and his wife to stay there and temporarily turn on the amenities. Cici is left alone with no means of communicating with Mike and imagining the worst. Her reunion with Mike is emotionally charged.
The authors hope to walk into Santiago together with their Camino family, but miscommunications, bad weather, and delays render this impossible. A separation on the trail leads to anger and relief.
Resilience and flexibility are themes of this book. Cici and Mike originally plan to walk on the Camino Mozárabe, starting in Granada. They realize, though, that they have not trained sufficiently for such a challenge and decide instead to hop over to Seville and the beginning of the Via de la Plata.
An injury requires the couple to retrace their tracks and to spend several days in Cáceres. Further physical challenges force them to bus ahead by several stages, a difficult decision for them. (On a subsequent trip, Mike and Cici return to walk the stages that they had missed.)
Mike struggles throughout the pilgrimage to find the deeper spiritual epiphany he had been expecting. For Cici, a pastoral carer and interfaith minister, this is much easier. Mike does recount having an easier time letting go of his business obligations when they make a return trip to the Camino several years after their first arrival in Santiago.
There are a few steady and sturdy Camino family members who appear in Happiness is That Way. (Fun fact: Two of them are former Canadian Company of Pilgrims president Lea Pennock and her husband Dan.)
Happiness is That Way is a light, easy read with plenty of color photographs and gives a highly personal glimpse into a less-traveled Camino route. Readers wishing to take on the Via de la Plata will find helpful tips at the end of the narrative.
Editor’s note: Joe has also written about his own experience on the Via de la Plata. Check out his Pilgrims Way reflection “Accompanying Me Home.”
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