Friday, January 25, 2013

Review: Wild

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
By Cheryl Strayed
Knopf 2012
315 pages
From my shelves 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed finds herself at a turning point in life. She has divorced her husband after the terrible death of her mother, and the rest of her family members are nowhere to be found. She decides to make a solo trip across the Pacific Crest Trail in spite of the fact that she has no experience as a hiker. This is Cheryl's story of her incredible trip and the realizations that she had about her past and what her future could be.

I've enjoyed reading Strayed's thoughts as Sugar on the website The Rumpus, but this is the first book of hers I have read. It lived up to all of hype. The tale of her journey by itself is interesting reading, even for those of us who have little desire to spend any time camping or hiking. You might think that this book would get repetitive or boring - it's just hiking day after day, right? But Strayed encounters many trials during her trip. She starts to lose her toenails because of ill fitting boots and finally loses the boots themselves; her supplies and money don't make it to the next stop in time for her to get them, and she meets some downright threatening characters, both of the human and animal kind. But her adventures and the long bouts of solitude give the young writer a lot of time to think - about her relationships, her choices, and where she wants to go from here in life (both literally and metaphorically). 

Some critics have decried the many terrible decisions that Strayed makes before and during her journey. She does drugs, has random sex, and oh yes, goes on a dangerous hike with no companions, no experience, the wrong boots, and a backpack she can hardly lift. But I think she is typical of a lot of people in their twenties and this trip is her turning point. It is the moment in her life when she discovers what she can do by herself - without the help or advice of a parent or a spouse. Who is she in her darkest moments when she is completely alone?

Cheryl Strayed is a beautiful writer. Her words have such grace and wisdom that I found myself pausing often to re-read passages. “Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something. That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of the regrettable things I'd done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I'd been skeptical about, I didn't feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.” 

I'm don't usually love memoirs. Often, they are so personal that there is no connection for the reader or they are so saccharine in their conclusions that the author must have been watching Pollyanna continually while writing. But this is a book I will read again and again, to experience Cheryl's crazy adventures, to observe the way she effortlessly crafts a gorgeous and heartbreaking passage, and to glean all of the insights she gains along the way. 

6 comments:

  1. Yes, yes and yes to everything you said :) This book made me want to go hike that trail...only in a much more prepared sort of way, lol. Great review!

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    1. Thanks Jennifer! I think I want to hang out with Cheryl Strayed forever and read everything she writes, from novels to grocery lists...:)

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  2. i feel like if strayed weren't a woman, she wouldn't be criticized so much for her choices. so what if she did some dangerous things. books about men who do drugs and sleep around are edgy and real; women have to be "nice." blah.

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    1. I think you make a great point. I hate that idea that women have to be nice. Grr...
      I think there are a lot of memoirs/biographies about people making terrible decisions and then continuing to make them. This is about a person at a turning point, and I think that is interesting regardless of your gender.

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  3. Didn't we all make stupid choices in our youth? I also agree with what Marie said. If this author were a man, people might not have reacted to negatively to the "edgy and real" stuff. :-)

    My aunt absolutely loved this book, and it's been on my list for a long time, despite mixed reviews. I'm glad you loved it too.

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    1. Your aunt is a very smart lady. :) This is one of those rare books that you want to push into people's hands and say, "Just read it. You can thank me later."

      I hope you enjoy it!

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