Cheryl Strayed

The story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Wild

Annalissa Powner 

I like the book well enough but I felt there were so many things that shouldn't have taken up so much space while other eliminates basically got skimmed over. But it was a good book for the most part. The ending was basically thrown together though.

Deepika Ramesh

I still can't cure the hangover. So, I have written a quick piece. https://worncorners.wordpress.com/201...

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.

Ryan 

It was a fascinating read, considering I haven't read anything like this, in terms of the topics and genres covered in this book. It was a journey reading slowing and becoming immersed with her experiences in the PCT and coming out something spectacular from this transformation. It's a book that makes me want to go out there and traverse through the PCT even if this author went through painful blisters and mental challenges she faced while there. More review to come.

Laura Mauler

Why is it that a book about how hard it is to backpack, about the misery and the pain and the fear, makes me so desperately want to do it? Maybe because there are parts like this: 

"Her death had obliterated that. It had obliterated me. It had cut me short at the very height of my youthful arrogance. It had forced me to instantly grow up and forgive her every motherly fault at the same time that it kept me forever a child, my life both ended and begun in that premature place where we'd left off." (p. 267)

In other words, she tells me my own life. 

And she talks about backpacking, which seems to be extreme hiking and camping, which I actually love to do.

Aamna

Going unprepared into the wilderness can surely add up to a whole lot of writing material. She comes across as Alexander Supertramp but without the depth.

Looked at reviews to try and understand why this is so highly rated to find them neatly divided between people with whom Cheryl resonates & those she irritates.

I am very irritated.

wahhh this was so beautiful and evocative and wonderful. i need to hike the PCT now

vinny<3

Lara Engle

I don't know what my deal is, reading Eat, Pray, Love, and then this. I guess it's just interesting to live vicariously. I would never, ever, ever want to live out of a backpack for months and hike an entire coastline alone. That sounds like punishment, not fun. But I truly enjoyed experiencing it with Cheryl through her book.

I forgot to review it when I finished it two months ago or so but I loved it. Made me think about and feel so many things. Truly inspirational 

Ann-Kathrin 

Traces the personal crisis the author endured after the death of her mother and a painful divorce, which prompted her ambition to undertake a dangerous 1,100-mile solo hike that both drove her to rock bottom and helped her to heal.

Ayesha ahmed

This book started out strong and really good, but after those couple of chapters it just started going down. Cheryl talks about her life and how everything started to fall apart after her mother's death, everyone goes through that so I don't see why she had to worsen her situation... Once she decided to go backpacking through the PCT to find her way through enlightment or whatever it is she was looking for, she wouldn't stop nagging (which we'd all be doing too if we were alone and inexperienced) but it just wasn't that appealing to read. Halfway through, she goes to a party, sleeps with a guy she barely knows, which basically seems like she hasn't really learned anything? That's what I felt. The only thing I liked was her perseverence in completing what she didn't think she was able to carry out. Other than that, I expected this book to something much more.

At 26, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk 1,100 miles of the west coast of America - from the Mojave Desert, through California and Oregon, and into Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise - a promise of piecing together a life that lay in ruins at her feet.

A Journey from Lost to Found

momo-reads

Mostly I spent my time yelling at  Cheryl for her writing style as well as her decision making skills. Sometimes though it made me nostalgic for a hippie adjacent lifestyle in the mid 1990s.

The beginning was heart-wrenching. Her adventures on the PCT made me want to hike it even more than I already do!

Bethany

At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America - from the Mojave Desert, through California and Oregon, and into Washington state - and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise - a promise of piecing together a life that lay in ruins at her feet. Strayed's account captures the agonies - both mental and physical - of her incredible journey; how it maddened and terrified her, and how, ultimately, it healed her. Wild is a brutal memoir of survival, grief and redemption: a searing portrayal of life at its lowest ebb and at its highest tide.

This memoir recounts the author's journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to find herself. However, she frequently seems unprepared and ill-equipped for the grueling trek. She lacks suitable gear, gets lost regularly, and pushes herself past her physical limits through pain and discomfort. 

While portraying the journey as an empowering quest, the book glosses over the precarious situations she puts herself in. The narrative emphasizes the encouragement she receives, depicting her as a persevering heroine. But her impulsive and risky decisions throughout point to a lack of planning that undermines the notion this was a transformative experience. Ultimately the book would benefit from a more balanced portrayal, acknowledging the drive to overcome challenges as well as the hardships caused by setting off on an ambitious hike without proper training or resources. The result is a story of endurance rather than empowerment.

Liana

This memoir recounts the author's journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to find herself. However, she frequently seems unprepared and ill-equipped for the grueling trek. She lacks suitable gear, gets lost regularly, and pushes herself past her physical limits through pain and discomfort. 

While portraying the journey as an empowering quest, the book glosses over the precarious situations she puts herself in. The narrative emphasizes the encouragement she receives, depicting her as a persevering heroine. But her impulsive and risky decisions throughout point to a lack of planning that undermines the notion this was a transformative experience. Ultimately the book would benefit from a more balanced portrayal, acknowledging the drive to overcome challenges as well as the hardships caused by setting off on an ambitious hike without proper training or resources. The result is a story of endurance rather than empowerment.

Colleen

I love reading about travel, the Great Outdoors, survival, and finding yourself in nature, so Wild seemed like a good pick for me. In the end though, I was left with mixed feelings about it.

The beginning is very slow. Strayed spent much more time than I was expecting telling her background and everything that lead up to her decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Her mother died young which sent Strayed into a spiral of self destruction. She had multiple affairs, destroyed her marriage, and started taking heroine. It was pretty grisly. (I don't consider that a spoiler since the gist of that is mentioned in the book description.) I did appreciate the matter-of-fact way that Strayed wrote about that part of her life. Often when people tell stories such as that, they resort to whiny justification or excessive amounts of blaming. But I was very glad to move onto her hike.

The bulk of the story covered her journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. This was much more interesting. I completely understand the urge to leave civilization and get back to nature. Certainly, Strayed was very foolish to attempt such a trip without proper planning or training, and it very easily could have ended in tragedy. Take Into the Wild for example. I am not an expert by any means, but I have a decent amount of experience hiking the Appalachians. I definitely shook my head at some of the rookie mistakes. Mostly by luck and the help of others (and some self preservation) did she survive the trip and live to write about it. A word of caution, Folks: NEVER underestimate Mother Nature or her ability to completely obliterate you!

The story was interesting enough. Once I got past the beginning section, I flew through it. But in the end, it lacked the emotional depth I was expecting. Yes, she endured a lot of stuff: the damage done to her in life, the damage she did to herself, and the physical ordeal of the Trail. But just when I was starting to like her, she takes a break from the trail at Ashland. While there she screws a complete stranger and tries some "chewable opium." Her vulgar and unremorseful description of her immediate return to her former bad habits was completely off-putting. It made the previous two hundred plus pages seem completely pointless. She clearly hadn't changed. And the "one last time to get it out of my system" attitude was infuriating. How many addicts use that as a constant excuse for not changing their lives. There si always "one more time."

She does make it back onto the trail, but her relapse is followed by a seriously bad attitude. It was the anniversary of her mother's birthday which puts her in a spiral of anger. This is a direct quote:

"She didn't live. She didn't get to be fifty. She would never be fifty, I told myself as I walked under the cold and bright August sun. Be fifty, Mom. Be fucking fifty, I thought with increasing rage as I forged on. I couldn't believe how furious I was at my mother for not being alive on her fiftieth birthday. I had the palpable urge to punch her in the mouth."

Wanting to punch your dead mother is NOT what I'd call soul searching. Or a healthy way of dealing with grief. In the end it felt she just shrugged it all off and said something to the effect of "Everything that I did wrong led me to this place, so I refuse to regret or apologize for any of it." (Please note that is the condensed version of my interpretation of this book. So don't get your knickers in a bunch about putting words in people's mouths.) That attitude is good to a degree. You have to acknowledge your mistakes and move beyond regret to live your life. But as I shut the book, I had the overwhelming sense that the author didn't learn anything from her experiences. She survived. She somehow made it to a better place in her life. But this didn't feel like a story of self-discovery or inspiration. Just someone who did something interesting and got her story published. 

The content and writing were good overall, but the lack of emotional depth leaves it at no higher than 2.5 stars. I do still want to see the movie though for the scenery if nothing else!


This review fulfills the "Book Based on a True Story" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

Sometimes you read a book that just hits, and this one did for me. Cheryl is an incredibly inspiring woman, her journey was not an easy one but my god was it full of strength and kindness. This book not only follows her on the PCT, but everything that resulted in her being there and making her the person she is. Truly fantastic and very emotional. 

Beth Bartholomew

Daniel Toke Hansen

This book was a joy to read - not so much because of her personal past, which is intertwined with the journey to find herself, but because of her struggles and wins on the PCT. I've always loved being in the woods or by the water and recently I've grown fond of hiking and made the same beginner mistakes as described in the book. As Mike Tyson put it very simple "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." This goes for hiking as well as this book can testament to that. You learn by doing. Then adjust and repeat. 
Furthermore, it was nice reading about the PCT but from a beginner's perspective instead of the vlogs on Youtube made by trained experts which you can't relate to. 
If you love hiking this is a book for you.

Jeannette Ordas

Loved this book. While I can't relate to much of the author's struggles, I did most certainly relate to every single one of her feelings about losing her mother to cancer. A crazy, enjoyable ride.

Jenny 

It was a well written book and her honesty and humility were inspiring. I think after being told to read this so many times I was expecting too much. Not the authors fault.

Janice Hopper

I'm normally a sucker for travel narratives like this. I've read lots of books about riding bicycles across America, hiking the Appalachian Trail, even one of an older woman hiking across France. I think I TRY to live vicariously through them, experiencing in imagination what I'm unlikely to do IRL. So when I didn't get quite the same enjoyment from this book that I have from others, I took some time to think why. 

For one thing, this book really isn't a travel narrative, unless you consider a journey of self-discovery to be a "travel" narrative. Cheryl was much more interested in exploring her inner landscapes and describing them than she was in detailing the external, physical journey on the trail. Aside from the details about how heavy her pack was, how bad her feet were, and a few other details, we don't learn much about her gear or many of her trail experiences. We learn that her body got stronger, she lost a lot of toenails, and she met people she liked, mostly. She did a lot of emotional work in dealing with her grief over her mother's death and her divorce. 

But she didn't come across to me as a very sympathetic character. She was a passionate woman who got married a bit too young, and who discovered after her mother's death that she needed something that she didn't have. So she broke her marriage by infidelities. She got involved with a guy who gave her heroin. She impulsively decided to hike the PCT without what many of us would consider sufficient preparation. She did manage to come out the other side of these experiences pretty intact. She was lucky. It might have been otherwise. 

I can believe that people would be surprised at a young woman hiking alone in the early 90's. I can totally see the guys being happy (and impressed -- or at least acting impressed to her) at what she was doing. It would never have occurred to me to bring condoms on a backpacking trip. Cheryl brought a whole package. Granted, she did get rid of most of them fairly early, but still... That speaks to a world view profoundly different from mine ( and from mine when I was 25). I'm not going to condemn her for that, because my life is not her life. I'm glad there are passionate, lusty women out there, and sometimes I wish I was one of them. But I'm not, so I can't fully understand or empathize with that life. 

So anyway: I'm glad Cheryl got what she needed on her hike. I just wish I'd enjoyed the trip with her a bit more.

One more note: I'm also reading "H is for Hawk" by Helen MacDonald. That's another memoir where the precipitating factor in A Big Life Change is the death of a parent. There is no one way to grieve or to recover from grief. Everybody has to figure that out on their own.

Sofia de Anda

I aboslutely lovedddd this book! The beginning was a bit slow, but then it gets good and honestly this had me hooked. I really felt like doing the PCT while I read this book and I think the thought of it being a real story made it all way way better than it already is. Honestly a life changing book, I could really feel a change in my persona as Strayed did her PCT. would definitely recommend this to everyone.

Ri Liu

As in her other works, Cheryl Strayed writes with her heart out in the open.

Katie Chua

I've never wanted to hike as badly as I do now

Sonja H

Es ist immer schwierig, ein Buch zu bewerten, das persönliche Erlebnisse des Autors/der Autorin beinhalten. Sie haben deutlich mehr Gewicht für den Schreibenden statt für den Lesenden.
Ich hatte also keine besonderen Erwartungen, als ich das Buch begonnen habe und war offen für alles, aber es stellte sich schon sehr früh als sehr zäh heraus. Es war ein langer Trail mit vielen Begegnungen und ein paar persönlichen Einblicken in das Leben der Autorin. Es ist allerdings kein Buch, was mir in Erinnerung bleiben wird. Es war ihr Weg, nicht meiner.

Mary Rose Luksha

After reading and rating this book, I looked at reviews before mine and was shocked to see so many 1 and 2 star ratings. The lower ratings seemed to come from people who are avid hikers (or avid outdoorsy people) whose qualm is that the actual hiking is more of a backdrop for the story being told, and that what Cheryl did was dangerous in its stupidity. 

Those are totally accurate. This is not a book about hiking. This is a book about a woman who had some serious psychological issues and was trying to find a way out of the mire. Hiking the PCT happened to be that way for her. I am not an outdoorsy person (sure I like being outside and I enjoy nature very much and it is very important to me, but I've never camped or dug a hole and pooped in it, which to me, qualifies as outdoorsy), but I understand that what Cheryl undertook was very dangerous and she was blessed to have guardian angels along her hike, and like other reviewers I hope readers are not stupid enough to think if they have a backpack and a tent they can hike 1100 miles.

However, unlike some of the other reviewers, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked the tales from the trail interspersed with stories from her life before hiking that put her journey into perspective. Some reviews have criticized her poor choices before the trail, and that must be nice being perfect. But I thought it was brave for Cheryl to admit some of the uglier choices she made, and own them, which is a struggle she overcomes in the book.

While Cheryl's problems were mostly different from mine, I felt akin to a lot of them, and was really rooting for her throughout the book which also felt like I was rooting for myself (am rooting for myself). If you want to read a book about how cool hiking is, look elsewhere. If you want to read a book about a woman confronting her grief, the mess she made of her life, searching for a way to hold on to something real and realizing its not about holding on but letting go, then effing read this book.

Melanie Richards

The common wisdom is that the book is better than the movie; more accurately, it's probably whichever one you experience first. I ended up abandoning this book halfway through because I felt like it wasn't adding to my understanding or interpretation of Cheryl's experiences. Anything new just seemed like more whining? I won't judge her feelings or her life choices like others are doing in their reviews (it's healthy to recognize your emotions, even the inappropriate/irrational ones), but I don't know that this needed to be a book. I might just not be a personal memoir reader.

Wild From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

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