October 5, 2015 - 14:22
I have now read through half of Cheryl Strayed's novel Wild, and I don't quite understand. I don't understand Cheryl as a character, nor her purpose in writing this memoir of sorts. I can't personally connect to her experiences nor her thoughts, and though I know it's because I haven't personally been through the various life changes she's had to endure, I also don't feel like Cheryl is a sympathetic character at all. I think that her perspective comes from one of privilege: a straight, white female who can afford to leave everything behind and hike through her thoughts.
While I understand the need to escape from reality every once in a while, I felt as though she was writing this memoir to show off how brave she was and how adventurous she could be. During her trek, it seemed that she was focusing more on her superficial hardships and less on her emotional well-being. The entire first half was just a chronicle of her escaping her problems while complaining about them at the same time. Overall, Wild has not impressed me so far. I hope that it will get better in the second half of the book.