Wild

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

By: Cheryl Strayed

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Wild is a powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again.

At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faced down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

©2012 Cheryl Strayed (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

“No one can write like Cheryl Strayed. Wild is one of the most unflinching and emotionally honest books I've read in a long time. It is about forgiveness and grief, bravery and hope. It is unforgettable.” (Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle)

“While reading Cheryl Strayed’s stunning book about her arduous solo journey along the Pacific Crest Trail, I kept asking myself - what would I do if I were stripped bare of everything - money, job, community, even family and love? Thoreau once said, ‘In wildness is the preservation of the world.’ For Strayed, it is clear that in wildness was the preservation of her soul. She reminds us, in her lyrical and courageous memoir Wild, of what it means to be fully alive, even in the face of catastrophe, physical and psychic hardship, and loss." (Mira Bartók, author of The Memory Palace)

“Cheryl Strayed can sure tell a story. In Wild, she describes her journey from despair to transcendence with honesty, humor, and heart-cracking poignancy. This is a great book.” (Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia and Seeking Peace)

a great book for any adventurer

What did you love best about Wild?

the brutal honesty of her experiences that lead her to this journey, and the experiences while on the trail. It renewed my faith that I could hike the Appalachian Trail alone, without worrying about dragging an unwilling friend or family member along. I cried like a baby during the horse scene.

What other book might you compare Wild to and why?

Confessions of Shopaholic because of its female lead who was honest about her faults.

Have you listened to any of Bernadette Dunne’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

One woman's journey through grief into adulthood

WHY DID THIS BOOK HAVE TO END?!?!

I enjoyed every minute of this book! I listened to it in my car and at night before I went to bed. The narration was great and the content was entertaining. The story did not drag!

Excellent Book

What made the experience of listening to Wild the most enjoyable?

I am very much an outdoors person and listening to this book reminded me of what I appreciate about the outdoors. I was glad & appreciative to read in the reviews that readers warned about the section of where the horse is put down...I totally skipped over this whole part as I cant stand to hear, read, or see anything of that nature. Thought the author did a great job of describing the untangling of her wrath of emotions that drove her to make such inapropriate decisions in her life. I also thought the book was able to stand very well on its own without the author introducing the coarse language and various sexual portions.....they could have just as easily been communicated very well without it coming across as crude. She is an excellent author and really didnt need to go that route.At first I struggled with the narrator.....she sounded much older than the hiker ( C.S. ) and it made it hard for me at first to get into the story and feel it was authentic....but eventually it won me over and I could get past it. I know a lot of people gave the narrator excellent recommendations, but that is how it struck me.I give C.S. a ton of credit for gong against all odds, sticking it out, staying positive and getting it together and then putting it in a well written book.....that is one tough hike as is the AT on the east coast.....I would recommend this book to anyone- and will.

Great

As a fellow hiker though not backpacking I enjoyed this book a lot. Adventure, drama, and reflective, it was just what I was looking for.

refreshing read

I loved it, I couldn't stop listening. There are several times, I wish she had gone into more detail.

Beautiful

It was Beautiful,Moving, just Lovely and full of grace . Many, Many thanks to the Author.

An inspiring story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inside someone's head and see how they think. It's a great book.

Worth Wading Through

Would you listen to Wild again? Why?

probably not, but enjoyed the read.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked her problem solving skills when confronted with adversity. I also liked the fact that she dives into any situation, generally not prepared, but muddles through, and isn't that what most of us do?

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, in fact, I had a hard time getting through the first part of the book, especially the part about her mother dying and subsequent hard times. I was listening to this book in the car with my husband and we both had a difficult time reliving her problems. Later, when traveling alone, I went back to this book and made it out to the trail. I found that part of the book really fun.

Inspiring

Narrorator was great, story was great! Very inspiring book, can't wait to watch the movie. Was sad and happy when it endes

What a journey; what a heart;courage by name

Would you consider the audio edition of Wild to be better than the print version?

I just know the reader of it was superb. I did not have the book, but if this was unabridged, I don't need it, except for the joy of possessing it. I'm downsized to the irksome point, so Audible is my savior for literary delights.

What did you like best about this story?

Every physical detail about how a neophyte would survive a rugged camping and trekking experience like this.The weight of her "Monster" backpack. Every incredible mishap, like losing a shoe over a precipice and throwing the other after it. Like finding merciful escape from attention-getting aches, injuries, and even mental distress--by reading famed great books. Also how she regretted scorning Michener in her mother's choices, and brought Michener's "The Novel," along in a second look at it. Found it totally readable. A reviewer online said she had scorned her mother reading Adrienne Rich--no way this character or her mother would have scorned such a feminist poet of great achievement. It was James Michener.
Also, I liked her conclusion, most monumental to me--that she had thought she needed a way out of her earthly journey and all her problems--but what she had found, in the aloneness that compelled her--was the way in to her own body,life and mind. She also found how much she loved mere existence with deep joy, even as she peeled off toenails, as if they were loose teeth, and, out of money for a tiny space in camp, had to trek on ahead, pitch her tent on the trailside.

What about Bernadette Dunne’s performance did you like?

I liked the even tone of her voice, which, nevertheless, made the story so compelling that I had to set up a table easel and canvas and paint all night as an excuse and way to listen all night. It still didn't reach the end, but I couldn't wait to get the story going the next noon, after going to bed at five a.m. Believe me, I was thrilled to know that someone named Bernadette Dunne could read this story as if she were living it and bring it to new life for me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I explained that above, about Bernadette's reading. It's a narrative line and a voice of a very fine mind in Cheryl Strayed's telling--that made me want to know if, how, and when, she found what she made such a death-defying search for, in her early twenties. As memoir, that voice was as much--even more--that of the author's mind twenty years or more, later, as it was the recounting by the younger, abler and daring, self. It's the hero's journey in "not such a Sunday School class" telling. Strayed's Goliath and a legion of furies were inside herself, and only she could reach them and dispell them with a cleansing risk of great faith and daring.

Any additional comments?

I think I've said what most delighted me. I was also thrilled (spoiler alert! don't read if you haven't finished the book) when her very close encounter with a devastating blight on the whole adventure, brought an unwitting rescuer to her aid. I loved how Strayed thought, in her inner moments of breath-stopping fear. She could lose, while so nearly completing the adventure--all the public attention from her accomplishment, and replace it, with grief, blight and shame for apparent foolishness on her part.