A Dull Slog
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Like several of this lady's books, El Camino is a judicious or perhaps injudicious mix of personal pilgrimage, self-absorbed travelogue and some sex and romance here and there, either personal or relating to those around her. The pilgrimage itself is the trek across the mountains of Northern Spain to Santiago do Compostela, completed by thousands of people and following the footsteps of St. James (Sant Iago). On the way she meets various different people, speculates on spiritual themes and relates a more accurate version of her affair with the unnamed British socialist MP told in one or two of her earlier works. He turns out to have been not a Brit at all but the Swedish prime minister Olaf Palme, who was assassinated in Stockholm some many years ago now. She claims he might have brought more of a social democracy to the collapsed soviet bloc had he survived, instead of the socialist economy collapsing only to be replaced by bandit capitalism, or, as some would have it, with equal accuracy, kosher capitalism. There might be something in it, though what weight Palme might have had, bearing in mind that he was something of a laughing stock to many outside Sweden, is doubtful. Interesting idea, though. The authoress eventually makes it through a scrum of media hangers-on and reaches her goal. To me, this book had some interesting parts, but I should not say i was riveted by it.
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