A review by molly_hn
Wild by Cheryl Strayed

emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

A perfectly imperfect metaphor for therapy; for therapeutic process and for human striving. The metaphors present will simultaneously haunt and inspire. I found this book in a YMCA charity shop and there is something serendipitous about that given the origins of the PCT. I've kept the book on my shelf for many years and have only just picked it up to read. Everything fell in to place... but a sort of slow falling. At first, the pace felt a little off with flashback that seemed to hold little relevance to the present happenings BUT the magic is in how these sequences actually resemble something true to human experiencing and human defence against experience: we do process in this way and it comes into place with greater and wider meaning in time. Meaning reveals itself slowly and is an ever shifting beast. I am not a hiker. I like nature in that all too millennial way-I know it exists beyond my walls; I know it benefits me; I bring it inside the walls in the form of houseplants... but I rarely have to time to be in and with it. That was not a barrier to appreciating the power and depths of this book. I wouldn't say the book is life-changing but it speaks to a process I feel is little represented in such a-true-to-individuation way. Favourite quote, which lacks meaning without context but perhaps you can insert your own

: 'I'd finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in. I was there now. Or close.' (p.290)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Grief

Fairly graphic descriptions of the wounds from hiking (squeamish). Takes an unflinching look at trauma, specifically processing post-trauma.

Graphic depiction of death of an animal which does become material that is processed by the protagonist but is, regardless, a difficult scene to read