The Stranger in the Woods The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

This is definitely a compelling story, but as a few others have pointed out, the behavior of the author is questionable, especially during the last chapters where Knight (the hermit) makes it painfully clear all he wants is to be left alone, and Finkel insists on trying to get in touch with him to the point of mild stalking. Regardless, I found Knight a fascinating subject because he was just so... ordinary. If it was up to him, he would have lived and died with nobody knowing his name or story. He doesn't believe he is some mystic, he doesn't try to justify his many thefts and burglaries, he doesn't even offer up any clear reason for why he chose to live alone for 27 years. The best thing about this story is that there are no easy answers, no true conclusions we can draw. The ending where Knight is trying to reacquaint himself with modern society is fascinating; it's as if the man stepped out of a time machine (he went into the woods in 1987.) I sincerely hope he has found some sort of happiness in life.

A good small story. It will find its way to me again in the future, I suspect.

I can't quite explain why, but this book marked me on a deeply personal level. It's excellent and thought-provocative and it entirely jumpstarted my love for audiobooks!

What a fascinating story. Can you imagine just up and leaving civilization one day, without telling anyone or bringing anything with you? Now take that a step further, and live in a stolen tent for 27 years while subsisting entirely on whatever you can steal from surrounding cabins. That was actually Christopher Knight’s life. Talk about truth being stranger than fiction. I can’t imagine how trapped he must’ve felt when he was finally caught and arrested for right around 1,000 counts of theft. While the story was incredibly interesting, there was something about the author that rubbed me the wrong way. I doubt Finkel was trying to capitalize on someone else’s misery, but I felt a bit of that. And the ways he describes himself as pursuing Knight was borderline creepy. Knight himself was such an enigma, and I would love to know more about how his mind works. Because throughout the book, one of the most interesting elements to Knight’s decision to leave civilization was that he had no reason. There was no catalyst; he just walked into the woods one day and didn’t come back out until he was forced out by authorities. This book is short, fast paced, and unflaggingly interesting. It’s an easy nonfiction read that is definitely worth your time. Random side note: I love Knight’s view on Ulysses. He thinks it’s drivel, and “refused to be intellectually bullied into finishing it.” This sentence just made me feel vindicated in my hatred of Ulysses.

I appreciate the story of Knight but the author is a stalker and harrassed him.

2.5

Interesting book, but I honestly started getting angry with the author by the end. This book was written about a man that valued privacy and isolation so much that he disappeared into the woods for decades. So what did the author do once he was discovered and forced back into a society he wanted no part of? Basically stalked the man. For the most of the book, I understood: he was a reporter gathering information on an interesting story. But when he continued to show up unannounced and unwanted after the story had basically been resolved? That's when the anger showed up. Leave the man alone!! Cripes... Still, an interesting story about isolation and the lengths one man went to get it.

Amazing! Favourite books of the year so far! Whenever anyone asks me my last 5 stay read this is the book I think of. Just so real!