Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I recently finished Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. It is a book about a woman who hikes a trail on the west coast in hopes of finding herself. It is an autobiography written by Cheryl herself as she hikes. I think this book is a must read. It was inspiring and uplifting, in a way that only a book about a woman who has hit rock bottom and fights her way back up can. Although there are plenty of books about women who struggle with self identity and depression, Cheryl did a good job of making this one engaging and different. I happen to like the autobiography genre because I like that the story is about real peoples struggles. I like to read about the challenges and how they overcome them, even if the challenges that most autobiographies are written about are extreme and hard to imagine, I feel that I can easily take them in context and apply them to situations that may arise in my, or someone close to me's life. Cheryl made me feel like I was her friend and companion on the hike. I laughed when she laughed and cried when she cried. Although there were points in the journey when even I was bored with the walking, I felt that those points were necessary to make the journey feel real. She did a great job of pulling me back in after these lulls and I was just as engrossed as before. I found the miscellaneous characters that flutter in and out to be quirky and entertaining. At the end of the book I thought about them and wondered where they were now and how they were doing. She only gave us a fleeting view of them, but she also had just a fleeting view of them herself. She focused more on how they affected her and what she learned from them, rather than on actually developing the characters. I liked that even though it was a book all about the discovery of who Cheryl Strayed really is, she gave us an insight into other characters that she met along the way. She was descriptive enough to set the plot for me, enabling me to envision her beautiful and treacherous hike while at the same time not being sickened by the descriptive words of beauty. I found the plot easy to follow, although considering the plot is almost entirely about a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, you would think that would be pretty straightforward; however, Cheryl found a way to entwine her trials and tribulations into the book while not making it confusing and jumpy. I would recommend this book to anyone going through a hard time in their life, but even for people that are not. It is a feel good book that makes you want to go strap a backpack on and take on the PCT today! I wanted to include some of the negative reviews that I found online. I found that most of them had to do with the actual hike, or the genre as a whole. Many people had written that all she did was complain through the book. I didn’t find this book to be whiny or self-centered. I liked the way that she was forced to focus on herself the entire time. I will say that she complained, a lot, about the hike and how hard it was but I believe that she was using that as a tool to show her readers how much of a journey it was. I think she whined to show that not only was she working through some very tough emotional stuff, she was doing it while working through some very tough physical stuff as well. I am not a hiker, so I have no insight into whether she portrayed hiking, as a sport, correctly so if you are a hiker and would like to shed some light here, feel free. The last complaint that I will talk about was the one of her lifestyle before the hike. I think that many people were cruel in the way that they bashed Cheryl’s lifestyle leading up to the hike. I think that she accurately portrayed a 25 something woman who has a pretty messed up life. I will agree that her choices were poor, but I think she handled it how she thought she could and I think that people who threw stones in the reviews about her life choices, sounded like they hadn’t really dealt with heartbreak and total life failure. There are different types of people in the world, those who make lemonade when life throws them lemons and people that throw the lemons away and chug a bottle of vodka. If you liked my post, visit my website at www.balancingemma.wordpress.com

Grief can lead us in many different directions. It can lead to self- reflection, a change in priorities, a stronger realization of one’s own mortality, and so on. It can lead people to try things or do things they never considered before. Such is the case with Wild, a true story of a woman shellshocked by grief who decides to take time to find herself by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild is a journey of discovery and growth. The author didn’t spend all her time alone hiking the trail, but she was alone for most of it, and she wasn’t as well- prepared, physically or otherwise, as a person should be. Her descriptions of places, people, the outdoors, the physical endurance, and other things help you feel like you are right there with her, experiencing the awe, the relief, the pain, and more. One of the things I like about this book is that it’s not a story about someone who has everything and decides to see what it’s like to rough it, to live life on the other side. I get tired of books like that; books that feature an individual from a privileged background who decides to find out how others live and survive. No, this is a book about an ordinary person. A person who grew up with little except for the family she cherished, only to have everything unravel, first with her father’s departure, then with her mother’s death, and then with the dissolution of her marriage. Her decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail was based on the accumulation of grief, lack of self- discipline, and other factors. She does end up learning a few life lessons along they way and she does seem to have grown in the process, so the ending is mostly a happy one. Where Wild falls a little short is with the author’s somewhat one- track mind and naivete about people in general. As she makes her way from place to place and encounters different men, she immediately wants to comment on their physical looks. To be fair, the entire book is written like that, with adjectives and colorful descriptions every step of the way, so it could be that this is just an extension of the book’s overall writing style. Still, I got a little tired of it. I really don’t care if this man was good- looking and this other one was not. It had little to do with the experience. Dealing with grief can be difficult and until you have experienced significant loss, there is no way of knowing what you may do. Wild is a good read overall about a woman’s effort to find comfort and forgiveness in the rugged American west and while it does have a few shortcomings, it still makes for an enjoyable read and I’m looking forward now to watching the movie based on this writing.

A moving story about love and loss. Must read. Would suggest getting the kindle edition, The print on the physical bookis a bit too small, can be hard to read.

Essere trasportati nel cuore di una persona e nel cuore selvaggio della natura e' il dono enorme che mi ha fatto questo libro, questa scrittrice piena di talento e con una grande anima . È questo il valore di un libro, ispirare, scavare dentro se stessi, stupire e dare spazio a ciò che ci fa crescere. Queste poche parole forse non sono abbastanza per recensire questo libro immenso.

'' Eu sabia que, se permitisse que o medo me ultrapassasse, minha jornada estava condenada. Eu decidi que estava segura. Eu era forte, eu era corajosa. Nada poderia me vencer. Insistir nessa história era uma forma de controle dos medos, que na maior parte do tempo funcionava. '' O interessante de ler histórias em fatos reais é ver o quão você também pode se permitir em iniciar algo do qual nunca imaginou. Esse livro me fez ver o quanto essa mulher foi corajosa em caminhar pelo PCT sozinha e ter certeza em sua escolha mesmo no decorrer da caminhada muitos não apoiarem, e para ela tudo era como uma reflexão interna caminhando longas distâncias e refletindo sobre grandes questões que aconteceram em sua vida, isso me fez refletir o quão (estar só) nos traz clareza de pensamento, perceber o quão sua própria companhia é por assim dizer: A melhor da qual você pode ter, tem uma parte do livro que ela diz: '' Sozinho sempre me senti como um lugar real para mim, como se não fosse um estado de ser, mas sim uma sala onde eu poderia me retirar para ser quem eu realmente sou'' . Há coragem que ela teve de passar noites em florestas podendo cruzar seu caminho com cobras, leões ou até mesmo um assassino em série, dormindo em lugares que poderiam não ser tão seguros, tudo isso para se dar a oportunidade de se redescobrir em uma nova perspectiva da vida. Há, que livro! Que livro! Pretendo rele-lo em breve, ou até mesmo ver o filme, mas como muito dizem: O filme não fala muito sobre o quanto ela sofreu com a morte da mãe e alguns crises familiares e internas. Então indico realmente a ler essa história incrível.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it was an honest, very real story about somebody going through a pretty rough patch in their life and departing on a journey to 'find themselves', pretty much unprepared and spontaneous. I was a little concerned it would be like one of those 'Eat, Pray, Love' books that are slightly too sugary and always have a happy ending to make everyone feel good. This one was very different - it was just raw and real, not your typical 'chick-lit' (which I loathe). The first few pages almost had me in tears as it reminded me of losing my father and the emotions you go through, regrets you have and the helplessness you experience. I was literally hooked from there. The book doesn't have a happy ending - it leaves Cheryl at the end of her trek along the PCT. We don't know what happens to her after that but you feel like she's come a long way from the person she started off as and you're confident she'll find her feet back in real life. It was uplifting without any obvious life-changing moments - a great read that I can whole-heartedly recommend.

Mucho mejor que la película. Una opinion muy honesta de los errores que se cometen cuando uno esta pasando por el luto de la persona mas importante en su vida. Es desgarrador e inspirador.