Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I’ve been making a point to make more time for recreational reading lately. I lost the taste for it over the last couple of years with all the uni reading I’ve had to do. By the time I’d finish reading a chapter on global security, Australian law, criminal psychology or American politics the absolute last thing I used to want to do was read anything else. The past couple of months I’ve found books that I just haven’t been able to resist though, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed was one of them.

I reluctantly went and saw the movie adaption of the book earlier in the year. I ended up absolutely loving it. It was one the best memoir-based movies I’d ever seen. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I went and picked up the book. It didn’t take me long at all to get through, even with the myriad of assessments I had to get through. For those of you who don’t know who Cheryl Strayed is let me explain. In the early nineties Cheryl’s mother died suddenly of cancer. I believe it was about 45 days from her diagnosis to her death. Her mother’s death destroyed her and she put herself down a path that ruined all the other facets of her life. She turned to drugs and extramarital affairs. Eventually she realised what she was doing to herself and she set out to change. She decided to walk the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for three months by herself. She walked from the Mojave to the Washington/Oregon border. Approximately 1,100 miles.  

The book isn’t really written in chronological order. It follows Cheryl along the PCT but also flashes back through times spent with her mum and family and the terrible times she went through after her mum’s death. A poorly written book would have felt disjointed when structured like this, but luckily Wild is very well written. I absolutely loved it. I was actually really worried because I’ve fallen in love with movies based on books before only to find out that the book is kind of crappy. I’m so happy to report that I didn’t have that problem with Wild. I was also really happy to find that the movie hadn’t veered too far off the path of the book.

The more I read it the more I became invested in Cheryl’s story. She didn’t tiptoe around anything that happened to her or anything she did to herself and the people around her. I found the story inspirational but kind of in a more gritty way than a lot of other books in its genre. I find it similar to Lena Dunham’s book in that way. Now, before you all start thinking I’m crazy because those two books are completely different, I know they’re nowhere near the same. What I did find the same was the way I felt their stories were told and the inspiration I took from them. Lena Dunham’s book was also very raw and honest in the way it portrayed her and her experiences. I much prefer when people are able to unabashedly show the ugly things along with all the good things that got them where they are. It shows the rest of us that everyone experiences ugly times, but you can get through them and be better for it (ugh, now I’m getting mushy!).

All-in-all this was a fantastic read. It’s really well written which makes it easy to read and even though she went through heavy stuff and she’s real about it, the book isn’t a downer. It makes you think about life and what you can do to make your own just that little bit better. If you’re looking for a good memoir-type book then definitely give this one a try!