Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
Publisher: Knopf
Publication date: March 20, 2012
Genre: nonfiction
Rating:

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

My thoughts…

I’ve heard so many people talk about this book when it came out, and so many TV shows have referenced it over the years, but I have to be honest, I don’t get it. I honestly do not care for the author. I should have known this wasn’t for me the first time she mentions cheating on her husband for the first time. You think it would end there, but oh no, she continues to cheat over the years. Why? Because her mom died. Her mom died, so she has a mental breakdown and starts sleeping with every available man. Then turns around and gets angry when her friends don’t want to hang out with her anymore because of how she’s been behaving. Oh, and she starts doing heroin. Really? You’re really going to excuse your behavior to losing a family member? I mean, I could understand an initial breakdown and maybe losing yourself right after losing a loved one. However, years later, and nothing about this woman has changed. So I ask you, was it really your mom’s passing, or were you always this selfish and self-centered?

Yeah, to say I had an issue with this book and this author would be a huge understatement. I could get past it all if there were some character growth, maybe even a little remorse for what she’s done, but no. As she hikes, or more accurately, hitches rides along the PCT, she recounts her earlier years. Years that really have nothing to do with anything. Do I really need to listen to you go on and on about your childhood horse? Especially when you follow that up with wanting to sleep with the people giving you a ride? And speaking of rides, this woman didn’t even hike the whole trail. I think she did cute little day hikes before hitchhiking farther up the trail. So, really this book should be Lost: My experience hitchhiking along the PCT while I check out every available male. :eye roll:

Okay. Okay. I’m done. There are so many things I could just dig into because this book just brought out the worst feelings in me. I honestly just did not care for the author and she didn’t seem to see a problem with what she was doing. Maybe in the last chapter this lady got her life together and turned her act around, but in all honesty, I could care less.