I am one of those people who force themselves to finish books even if they didn’t like it because.. well maybe the plot twists and it gets better. I have to admit I really didn’t enjoy Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I didn’t finish!
It started off interesting but not even half way through the book I got very tired of her self imposed suffering, almost a privileged kind to prove something to herself as she focused on the physical pains rather than shed tears over her emotional upheaval: death of her Mother she never reconciled and her recent divorce and like alot of us – that journey of looking for yourself.
I loved her other book Tiny Beautiful Things, but I could not manage Wild. I had to give up 3/4 way through and I unfortunately didn’t finish reading this, so would be unfair of me to review it. But I found it excrutiatingly painful to keep on reading about this arduous journey – everyone deals with grief differently and I don’t think I am one of those that would choose to hike the Pacific Crest Trail to “find myself“.
It was her form and choice of catharsis and I guess I couldn’t relate because it is so far removed from my own reality and I found it a little self absorbed. But similarly I didn’t enjoy “Eat, Pray, Love“, simply because one woman’s journey isn’t always another’s.
It’s on Oprah’s book club list and well, I am sure it resonates with a large audience given their reviews, but I personally didn’t enjoy it.
