Book Review: Call of the Camino

Call of the Camino: Myths, Legends and Pilgrim Stories on the Way to Santiago de Compostela

by Robert Mullen
Findhorn Press, 2010
207 pages
on Goodreads

Reviewed by Jerald Stroebele | Anchorage, AK

Sometimes good books aren’t discovered through an internet search. I walked into my favorite used bookstore and this newly stocked book caught my eye. Why hadn’t I heard of it?

Robert Mullen is a Scotsman who walked the Camino Francés “way back” in 2005 at age 60. He is an entertaining, informative, and good writer: “The cheapest way to reach the Middle Ages from Edinburg was a budget flight to Biarritz.” I read his book in four evenings just before my Camino this spring. I reread on my return home, still in my Camino afterglow. It is that good.

Don’t just take my word for it. The late Camino guidebook gurus John Brierly and Alison Raju both recommended it. Brierley wrote: “…Mullen brings a lovely blend of humour bordering on ‘Chauceresque’ irreverence, but it always feels relevant and authentic.” Raju wrote: “Well-written, (nothing is redundant), well researched  and extremely readable, …” Did you know that in the 12th century, bootmakers along the Camino were granted a special dispensation to work on the Sabbath, allowing them to repair pilgrims’ boots on Sundays?

Mullen wrote in his journal each evening on the Camino and particularly captured the conversations with both fellow pilgrims and the local people he met. He is fluent in Spanish and explains a lot of Spanish words and phrases. His book is an entertaining Camino memoir full of personal stories about his pilgrim friends and himself. It is also a good reference to the history of the Camino, loaded with anecdotes and myths about the places he visits. He explains myths, dreams, legends, and rituals of the people who walked the Camino and those who lived there, offering insights on the beliefs and perspective of their time.

Five family members and friends, new to the Camino Francés, will accompany me this fall. I would never carry a printed book on Camino, but I couldn’t help but download an e-reader version to read on my phone. I will regale my traveling companions with stories from this book as we walk.

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