Hello all!
The pen pals just finished reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed and here are our reviews!
Does the story interest you?
Demi: I had heard of this book when it first came out but didn't get around to reading until Kristin mentioned she just finished it. Bren and I had just started hiking on the weekends so I was intrigued.
Kristin: Yes! Initially I picked up a copy because my friend Amy had hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia all the way to Maine a few years ago - by herself. And I wanted to read another perspective.
Jenn: Absolutely! I love non-fiction first-hand accounts of awesome adventures. I read Into Thin Air (Krakauer) a few years ago and couldn’t put it down- this story felt the same way.
Were you engaged immediately, or did it take you a while to "get into it"?
D: I was engaged in the prologue! She really captures your attention right away and keeps it throughout the entire book
K: Completely engaged from the get-go. Having lost my own mother just a year ago, I really connected to Cheryl’s deep loss of her mother and the tumultuous feelings she experiences.
J: I felt engaged throughout the entire story. I liked how the author jumps between past and present to build the story and engage readers with an honest account of who she was, who she became, and the transition in between. There is a lot in there that most people could relate to.
How did you feel reading it—amused, sad, disturbed, confused, bored...?
D: I was impressed at her strength, grossed out at her toenails falling off and inspired to see the PCT- not to hike it but to see some of the places she visited.
K: I felt like I knew Cheryl, and like I was her at certain points. Although, I wouldn’t have had a saucy one-night-stand with a stranger on a beach and I really can’t fathom filtering pond water to drink. Instead of sad or amused, I just felt connected to her.
J: Inspired. When I returned the book, the librarian asked me if it was a good read and I told her it was great, that it made me want to go on a hiking journey. She smiled and said the greatest books inspire us in that way.
Did the main characters change by the end of the book? Do they stay the same?
D: Cheryl was the only main character and to say she changed was an understatement! She was transformed at a time when she really needed it.
K: I agree with Demi. Cheryl was completely transformed by the end, literally and physically.
J: I think that pieces of old-Cheryl will always shine through, you can see it in her writing and the way she acknowledges the mistakes of her past, but it’s clear that she had grown tremendously. I got a kick out of the name she chose for herself, post-divorce. And yeah, I was totally jealous of her post-hike toned body!
Has this novel changed you—learned something new or broadened your perspective?
D: This novel has made me think about how much of our lives we live in our head. It has made me realize that I would never be able to do what she did. I also think about how much I love a hot shower on a daily basis and am grateful I have it.
K: I was able to realize that deep loss affects others in the same way it has affected me. I’m not the only person who would curl up at her mother’s gravestone and essentially throw a temper tantrum of grief. Reading of her experiences with rationing food, fending off creepy men in the middle of the woods and truly living off the land at some points made me realize that I definitely could not follow in Cheryl’s footsteps. I consider myself a tough person, but I couldn’t stand to be as alone as she was.
J: I think what’s most inspiring about this story is the realization that if Cheryl Strayed, this mess of a woman with zero experience hiking, can accomplish this amazing feat, I could too. Hiking the PCT has never been on my bucket list, but hiking part of the Appalachian is. The longest hike I’ve ever done was two days, and that was incredibly hard! I was so sore the day after that I literally could not walk. She must have felt this x100, and yet she carried on because, really, why not? That’s a perspective anyone could take with them in a lot of different situations.
What passages strike you as insightful, amusing, funny, or profound?
D: I loved the "trail angels" I would love to do that one summer, maybe when I retire. I also loved the nicknames the hikers were given
K: There’s a passage where Cheryl describes how her mother’s ashes weren’t what she expected, how she can see dark char burns and pale grey pebbles. I, too, was dumbfounded when I peered at my own mother’s ashes this past summer. I plan to turn them into beads to wear on a necklace. Cheryl describes what is written on the box containing the ashes:
“It said her name and the dates of her birth and death and the sentence she’d spoken to us again and again as
she got sicker and died: I’m with you always.”
I gasped when I read that because my own mother did the same thing, but throughout her whole life. I literally have, stuck to my computer, a note from her that reads the same: “I’m with you always. Love, Mom.” I lost it when I got to that passage because I felt like there was a reason I was reading this book and perhaps my own Mum was reminding me she’s still there.
But then Cheryl continues: “I felt like she was with me always, metaphorically at least. And in a way that was literal too. When we’d finally … spread her ashes into the dirt, I hadn’t spread them all. I’d kept a few of the largest chunks in my hands. I’d stood for a long while, not ready to release them to the earth. I didn’t release them. I never ever would. I put her burnt bones in my mouth and swallowed them whole.”
This act of swallowing her mother’s ashes just struck me as so poignant and beautiful. I understood exactly her reasoning for doing that. And I honestly thought to myself, “I can’t believe YOU didn’t think of doing something like that, Kristin!”
J: I must have re-read, “I put her burnt bones in my mouth and swallowed them whole” 3 times. Initially, I could not figure out if this was literal and was in complete disbelief that it absolutely was.
Were you surprised by the plot's complications? Or did you find it predictable, even formulaic?
D: I was anticipating the worst but was surprised that she was never in a truly dangerous situation she couldn't get out of. I think a lot of the danger was mental and she overcame some grueling conditions.
K: I wasn’t surprised by any plot complications, just because everything Cheryl encountered was completely unexpected. You couldn’t predict what she would next encounter.
J: There were a few times where I worried for her safety and wellbeing, but most of it just felt realistic to her journey. It was always in the back of my mind that obviously she made it, as she wrote the book!
What foods or beverages did you spill on the book during the course of reading it?
D: I think I may have left some cookie crumbs in the binding.
K: Tears.
J: Ditto tears! But mine were happy tears on the very last few pages.
Any part of the book make you stop and think about the people in book club reading it- did something remind you of them or it was disturbing or risqué and made you wonder how they reacted to it?
D: Was anyone else expecting something way worse to happen? Every time someone picked her up I thought "this is it, she's getting abducted"
K: I wondered how other readers would react to Cheryl swallowing the ashes. It touched me so deeply because of losing my own mother. But to someone who hasn’t experienced a loss like Chery’s, I wondered if they thought that was gross/weird.
J: I actually thought about Kristin throughout a lot of this book, especially during the pages involving her relationship with her mother and saying goodbye.
Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it?
D: I thought the end was satisfying, she survived and was changed for the better in the process. I can't wait to see the movie and see what they take and what they leave out.
K: Yes! Definitely satisfying. I am so glad she made it out alive and didin’t have horrible things happen to her. I was definitely worried for her when she encountered strange people. I would have liked Doug to live, though!
J: Loved the ending. It rounded it a great story, she takes you from the dark place she started at and brings you to a brighter future.
If you could ask the author a question, what would you ask? Does this book inspire you to read others by the same author?
D: "Would you hike it again knowing what you know now?" "Do you still have Monster?"
K: Did you accomplish what you mentally set out to do? Is Cheryl at the end of the book the Cheryl you hoped to become?
J: I really wonder about her ex husband and if they have maintained a friendly relationship all this time.
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