300 pages
English language
Published June 12, 2012 by Atlantic Books, Limited.
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mother's death, with nothing more to lose, Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker--indeed, she'd never gone backpacking before her first night on the trail. Her trek was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. …
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mother's death, with nothing more to lose, Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker--indeed, she'd never gone backpacking before her first night on the trail. Her trek was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and intense loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
[www.cherylstrayed.com][1]
This is not a book about hiking the PCT. So forget about that. This is a book about coming to terms with what it means to be human. How we fall and get back up again. How we put one foot in front of the other. Again and again. Maybe, finally, we reach our destination. Maybe we grow up.
"Wild" was a fantastic read. I loved the isolation, monotony and tedium that Cheryl experienced on the trail. Reading how the mind wanders and the expectation that you will be looking at beautiful vistas the entire time but all you you see are your two feet and the next section of trail ahead of you are similar to experiences I have had. Her story on the PCT really got me excited about grabbing a bag and torturing myself on a trip like hers.
Cheryl wasn't a saint in her pre-PCT life but her time on the trail changed her and her outlook on life and I am a little envious of her 'spirit quest'.
Beautiful and interesting story, and quite well written as well. Lives up to the hype.
