Book Review: Wild

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The only reason I gave this book two stars was because my least favorite book of all time is designated for the one star. 
There were some good qualities to the book. The author's voice is easy and interesting to listen to. The book is a quick read. Her stories about her mother were very inspiring. You also appreciate how she portrays her ex-husband in a continuous positive light, especially after what she does to him. 

But for me, that was pretty much it. She uses a tragedy to justify some horrible personal decisions and then decides she's going to forgive herself of these things because she feels she is on the right path. She doesn't really seem to care at all about any of the people she hurt along the way. She never acts out of remorse for wrongs committed. No one else seems to really matter to her as long as she feels good about herself. She mentions her abortion with such casualty, and then decides to equate her hike to a pregnancy. That alone was enough to turn me off. The story is pretty much an ongoing picture of being self-centered. The only thing that really upsets her is when someone calls her a hobo. The only time she felt really good about herself was when she was after she had relations with a guy she knew she didn't want to see again. Nothing really mattered to her except her own feelings.

Most memoirs give you some feeling of self-realization and desire for change. I never really saw that. I was just disappointed when I got to the end. I wanted to feel that I had learned something, but I wasn't able to because she didn't really learn anything about herself.