forCycling.com - The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa by Neil Peart

Product Description:


Dysentery, drunken soldiers, and corrupt officials provide the background for Neil Peart's physical and spiritual cycling journey through West Africa. The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through photographs, journal entries, and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the reader that this is not just another travel book?it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.




Neil Peart cycles his way through West Africa and brings us along with him, dysentery and all. The Masked Rider details his physical and spiritual journey, through photographs, journal entries, and tales of adventure. Peart's "masks" are the masks that we wear--culture, psychology, labels, expectations--and his book reveals how traveling in a very foreign land allows us to peer behind them.

Customers' Reviews:

Riding Shotgun with Neil, February 10, 2010

If you're looking for tour notes, stories from the road, or even a chapter about his bandmates. This isn't for you. This book is about americans cycling in africa. It is very descriptive, the people, the places, sights, sounds, smells. The small taste of what Neil is thinking, and going through. You feel like you're there with them. I have read the other three Neil Peart books, and this one last. (out of order I know). Not what I expected, but pleasantly surprised. This is where the travel writer came out and honed his craft. Makes me want some rice with junk on it.
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Never look too closely at an artist you admire..., September 10, 2009

...or you may learn that he's a self-centered, holier-than-thou, intolerant, egotistical jerk. Whew! I heard "Ghost Rider" was even worse; good thing I didn't read it or I'd probably never go to another Rush concert. A lot of this "journey" is filled with the author's arrogant, impatient ramblings...a more unpleasant person I would not want to spend four weeks with! He decimates his fellow cyclists shamefully, and is so petty it's sickening. He mentions several times how he'd had better trips where he'd bonded with the people he met...crying out loud, write about those, then - don't expose us to this pointless, mean-spirited drivel! One more thing - I work in the publishing industry, and I can tell you quite positively that, much as Mr. Peart would LOVE to believe otherwise, there is NO WAY this crap would EVER have been published if he had not had prior name recognition. It's a shame it got published anyway - what a waste of paper! And of my time...there's a few hours of my life I'll never get back.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful



It might say Neil Peart on the cover..., May 21, 2009

...but really it's written by just a guy who rode his bike for a month through Western Africa. I think this is Peart's best literary work (I've read Ghost Rider and Travelling Music so far). The descriptions were so clear that I could envision what he was seeing from the saddle of his bike. He tells the reader what he saw, he describes the people along the way and his travelling companions as well. He holds nothing back and is honest about his observations--which might put some readers off. This book will also appeal to the non-Rush fans as well, because it's about the trip. He barely mentions Rush in the book, so those who aren't already fans from his other life (the drumming life) can easily pick this up and follow along.
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Wonderful and Disappointing, January 9, 2009

I have finally finished reading The Masked Rider, by Rush drummer Neil Peart. It was both wonderful and disappointing. Wonderful, because of the story that he tells, of the journey that he took across some of the hardest, as well as most beautiful, land on earth. For reasons that were apparently not even clear to himself, he biked across Cameroon with a handful of other North Americans, staying in all manner of hovels and hotels, meeting peasants and chieftains, and enduring difficult (and non-existent) roads and roadblocks. But, wow, what an experience. Disappointing because in so many places Peart's contempt for the portion of humanity not himself, comes through loudly. Much of the book was a tirade against his fellow travelers, or with the people around him, or with the pointlessness of West African inefficiencies. One wonders why someone would choose to bike across Cameroon if one wasn't expecting abject poverty, terrible road conditions, and long stretches between running water. I'd love to see the marketing brochure. Strangely, for his grim painting of the experience, I came away from it wishing that I could do it myself. Always a junkie for an experience, I would love to see the things that he describes, even at the expense of the physical difficulty it took to get to it. And in many of his disgusted tellings of interpersonal turmoil, I found myself siding with the person he was berating. He is so completely goal-oriented, that even when describing the beauty around him, he seemed to miss out on the experience he was complaining about - a bit of a paradox, I suppose. Peart remains my favorite lyricist, writing song lyrics that actually mean something. But I have, so far, found his books frustrating - a wealthy traveler expecting the world to be a place of luxury when he arrives at his destination, and not get in his way getting there. I, on the other hand, love the journey more than the destination. For me, the experience is the thing, and actually arriving is less interesting. Or, to quote my favorite lyricist: From the point of ignition To the final drive The point of a journey Is not to arrive Anything can happen...
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Great Story, November 19, 2008

I love Neil's writing...both his lyrics and his books. I thought this was a fun little tale about his bike journey in Africa. I recommend it if you're a Neil Peart fan..
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful