[books 2015] Wild
54. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
There's been a film so this book is everywhere at the moment. I got interested because we crossed the Pacific Coast Trail a couple of times when we were in California. It was in the wild in the library last time I went so I grabbed it.
There are a number of ways to kick heroin. Hiking all the way through California and Oregon a long way from civilization is, indeed, one.
At the start I thought it was yet another book about a whiny entitled person biting off more than they can chew & we're supposed to sympathise. Instead, it's the story of someone who had a genuinely hard life (growing up in poverty with significant domestic violence), was getting somewhere when her mother died and then went off the rails. Although she was unprepared for the trail, she knew that she was and took advice when people gave it, improvised and just kept on going.
I had expected the family background flashbacks to be annoying (I just wanted to read about the hiking) but ended up being enthralled.
As for the hiking - wow. As I said above, our recent road trip intersected with the trail. There's a point at which she has to leave the trail because it's too snowed-in at the end of June to continue, and the nearest town she hitchhikes down to is Lone Pine. That's the last town we stayed in before our attempts at the High Sierra got snowed out of existence. We walked for a couple of hours in the desert near the beginning of her route and, despite what we thought was sufficient hydration, both started to feel unwell halfway through the afternoon. so I know how dry it can be, how high it is and how unpredictable the weather.
So, yeah, better than its current popularity might suggest. I'm told the film is pants, though.
There's been a film so this book is everywhere at the moment. I got interested because we crossed the Pacific Coast Trail a couple of times when we were in California. It was in the wild in the library last time I went so I grabbed it.
There are a number of ways to kick heroin. Hiking all the way through California and Oregon a long way from civilization is, indeed, one.
At the start I thought it was yet another book about a whiny entitled person biting off more than they can chew & we're supposed to sympathise. Instead, it's the story of someone who had a genuinely hard life (growing up in poverty with significant domestic violence), was getting somewhere when her mother died and then went off the rails. Although she was unprepared for the trail, she knew that she was and took advice when people gave it, improvised and just kept on going.
I had expected the family background flashbacks to be annoying (I just wanted to read about the hiking) but ended up being enthralled.
As for the hiking - wow. As I said above, our recent road trip intersected with the trail. There's a point at which she has to leave the trail because it's too snowed-in at the end of June to continue, and the nearest town she hitchhikes down to is Lone Pine. That's the last town we stayed in before our attempts at the High Sierra got snowed out of existence. We walked for a couple of hours in the desert near the beginning of her route and, despite what we thought was sufficient hydration, both started to feel unwell halfway through the afternoon. so I know how dry it can be, how high it is and how unpredictable the weather.
So, yeah, better than its current popularity might suggest. I'm told the film is pants, though.