Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This was our book club's book for November, and it was one I was super excited to read.  I had heard great things about it from other readers I generally agree with, and saw that it had gotten pretty good reviews from the media.  So it was actually one I had suggested to the group, and when November rolled around I jumped into Wild prepared to be in love with it.  I'm not quite sure it achieved all I expected! 

Wild is the true story of one woman's decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave desert to the Oregon/Washington border on her own one summer.  She had experienced a lot of trauma in her life--loosing her mother to lung cancer at an early age, her marriage falling apart (although this was her own dumb fault...), and her family disintegrating after her mom died.  I loved the beginning.  She captured my attention on page one and kept it through the back story of how she ended up on the trail.  She had never been backpacking until the day she set foot on the trail, and her description of trying to lift her pack, trying to stand up with "A VW Beetle on my back" was hysterical.  I thought she was a great writer who managed to bring me with her onto the trail, I could picture her journey, and feel her body aching as she adjusted to the rigors of hiking miles each day. 

I have to be honest though, about 1/2 way through this book I was ready for her to be done.  I lost interest and thought it was about 100 pages too long.  It was fascinating listening to our book club's discussion about this one--some really loved it and some really really didn't.  I was somewhere in the middle.  I liked the story, but didn't always love her--didn't think she made very good choices (for instance, if you've never been backpacking, why the heck are you setting out on the PCT ALONE??).  But I found I had a LOT of compassion for her.  She had a tough life, and a lot happened to her at an early age and she didn't have a great support system in place to help her through that.  So she hit the trail.  In a lot of ways she learned a lot, and "found herself" but in a lot of ways she didn't.  It's probably worth the read, but I don't think it's my new favorite memoir of the year!