Walking With Sam: A Father, A Son & 500 Miles Across Spain- Andrew McCarthy

Memoir

Rating: 8/10

“It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.” Henry David Thoreau

If you go into this book by actor Andrew McCarthy thinking you are going to leave with some juicy celebrity gossip, you will be dissatisfied. What you will get is an intimate, funny, and deeply poignant memoir that invites you along on a trek of discovery for a father and son as they navigate a new way to connect as adults.

As an actor who was once defined as a member of the Brat Pack, McCarthy struggled with the sense that he was undeserving of his success. That he was what people thought him to be, a poser, a slacker, talentless in comparison. An adopted perception that he hoped to divest himself of when he walked the Camino de Santiago, a famous 500 mile walk across Spain. It worked, the walk reset his baseline.

Twenty-five years later, with his eldest son Sam in tow, he sets out to achieve the same result, although for different reasons.

Walking with a companion inspires chatter, both meaningful and trivial. And let’s face it, on a walk this long both are necessary. But imagine for a moment doing it with a teenager who can barely hold back their borderline disdain for everything you represent. Within moments of setting out on day 1 of this ambitious, arduous, and potentially profound walk, Sam informs his dad that he is about to get so sick of him. 34 days to go.

McCarthy is a gifted writer, open and frank. A father longing to turn back the clock and relive every moment of his son’s life, understanding that he can only go forward is a bittersweet outcome of this pilgrimage.

Book Pairing(s): The Trail Provides by David Smart, Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit, Almost Somewhere by Suzanne Roberts