'Wild' got so much press when it was published; it was on Oprah's reading list and stayed on the NYT Non-Fiction Bestseller List for a very long time. I won't say a negative word about Oprah, and usually she and I like the same books, but normally I take anything in the "Bestseller" category with a heap of skepticism. However, the premise of 'Wild' really intrigued me -- Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from southern California to Portland, Oregon in the mid 1990s, alone and broke.
I was surprised by how much this book managed to surprise me, again and again. I have read so many "survival" memoirs, and they often recycle the same old tropes and cliches. But 'Wild' is really unique for a few reasons, which I suspect have something to do with its immense popularity among folks who probably aren't hiking or camping enthusiasts. What I was particularly drawn to was Strayed herself, or the version of herself in the book, which was 26 year old Cheryl. I think this is the first survival/adventure memoir I've ever read that is about a woman the same age as me, and I found her so immediately relatable, even though our lives are so completely different. She manages to establish intimacy with the reader so quickly, and she builds on this relationship and trust for the next 300 pages.
Of course there are plenty of incidents when she runs out of water or sees a bear on the trail, but there are also plenty of moments that really caught me off guard, and I found my heart racing at so many moments, even when I obviously knew she made it out alive and well. One thing I enjoyed so much was her record of her reading habits on the trail. It's hard to imagine someone having the time or energy for reading while hiking the PCT, but every night she'd make camp and read a book with her headlamp until she fell asleep. The books that she reads serve as guideposts along her route, and she works their significance into the larger narrative so seamlessly. Below is a list of the books she read over the three months she spent hiking the PCT:
Pacific Crest Trail, Vol. 1
Staying Found by June Fleming
The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Riche
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Collected Stories of Flannery O'Connor
The Novel by James Michener
The Summer Bird Cage by Margaret Drabble
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Dubliners by James Joyce
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
Pacific Crest Trail, Vol. 2
Best American Essay 1991
The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout