I had known that Wild was on the New York best seller list but I hadn’t known that it was an Oprah Book Club Choice until after I had finished the book. I had see the title a couple places and thought it sounded fun.
Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed is an account of a solo backpacking trip that she took in 1995. She had lost her mother to cancer four years earlier and had been unable to heal and move on. Her life began to unravel, culminating with a divorce and her decision to hike the the PCT.
The story is about the events that brought her to the decision to hike, how she prepared (mostly from the advice of REI salespeople), the events of the hike itself, history about the trail, and her healing process.
Cheryl, as a character, is very relatable. I lost my own mother 8 years ago, went through a stuck period and then moved to a transformed space. Hearing Cheryl’s grief and healing process was similar to my own: the things she thought about, how things were rationalized, how the acceptance happened. I could say, “yep, been there, thought that.”
The adventure part of the story was my favorite part. I loved the descriptions of what she saw and how it made her feel. She really wasn’t prepared for the journey. As a former Girl Scout, I could point to dozens of mistakes she make along the way. But that was what make her all the more human.
I told my kids about the story and Daughter asked, “how did she survive?” Amazingly, regardless of the mistakes along the way, the protagonist arrived at the end alive and not broken.
This was a good journey.
