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sleeg's review
4.0
Loved this book. Read it while I was deployed to the first Gulf War. Had delusions of following in Jenkin's footsteps when I came home, but managed only a couple of days bakcpacking. Still, great inspiration for anyone looking for answers to what comes next in life.
beachbookbabe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
5.0
nicole_roccas's review against another edition
5.0
This was a re-read for me, having first encountered the book when I was in middle school in my dad's book collection. Pulling the book off my book shelf this week was like walking back in time, back to my teenage self. Then as now, I empathized with the author's struggle to make sense of America. It is both sad and unsurprising to see how many of the author's struggles remain current to today's discourses--racial inequality, poverty, crime, and prejudice. I read the book now as someone who no longer lives in the US, and this added a new layer to the experience of the book compared to the first time I read it. Like Jenkins' walk across America, my own journey(s) as an adult have given me a deeper sense not only of the complicated legacy that comes with being an American citizen abroad, but the importance of distance and engagement in making sense of larger struggles for identity and belonging. Yes, there are some anachronisms that I doubt would have made it into a book today (e.g. Jenkins' frequently refers to a family he spent a mere 3 mos renting from as his "black family." No comment.) Still, his book maps the complicated, beautiful, and human topography of the US in perennially personal contours.
jonjas's review against another edition
3.0
Must have been a brilliant journey, shame that it isn't conveyed a bit better. It feels like Jenkins just reports facts and makes reaches in terms of metaphors and similes, it just never comes across as natural to me. For such an interesting topic it just feels kinda like reading someone's essay on their summer vacation at points- but when it's good it's really good. The people he meets along the way, the poor black family in the swamps of Louisiana and some of the country folk, are great, and the *SPOILER* dog.. y'know, and his new wife, all that make it worth reading. It's just that it's never as clear or as vivid as it feels like it could have been, which is a shame. 3 stars feels fair- it's a recommendation because it's so darned cool as an idea.
cplan10ga's review against another edition
5.0
This book got me hooked on Jenkins. While his subsequent books failed to have the same magnetism as this one, I still want to read what he writes.
My first copy was the first paperback edition showed Jenkins and Cooper on the cover, I have purchased it many times since and given them to friends.
I fell in loved with Cooper Half-Malamute, and remember elements of the story with him the most.
This is a book that witnesses someone doing something many of us only dream about. I think of it often.
My first copy was the first paperback edition showed Jenkins and Cooper on the cover, I have purchased it many times since and given them to friends.
I fell in loved with Cooper Half-Malamute, and remember elements of the story with him the most.
This is a book that witnesses someone doing something many of us only dream about. I think of it often.
snukes's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book while in college. I don't remember who gave it to me - a friend from one of the Christian groups on campus, maybe? It was not my usual choice of reading material, but I read it anyway, and a lot of it really stuck with me.
I was thinking about it recently after I finished a 7-day hike on the AT and was hit with a serious, debilitating illness right after getting off the trail. I wound up at the ER, where my case was diagnosed as vertigo - a very simple malady, when you get right down to it, but one that would have been crippling if it had happened out on the trail. My mind immediately flashed to the scene in this book when Jenkins became extremely sick out on the road, completely alone and without help. If I remember right, he crawled into an abandoned shack and basically laid around nearly dying of his illness AND dehydration for three days before...? What? How did he get out of it? Somehow that part has faded away.
I remember having been horrified when I first read this section, with no real concept of what it might mean to be that alone. Thinking back on it now doubled my sense of horror. I'm astonished he survived.
Other than that, my recollections of the book have to do with how little prepared he was for what he decided to undertake, how National Geographic simply had to find out about his plans to shower him with equipment, how profoundly unnecessary the death of the dog was (sorry - I'm not going to mark that with a spoiler - someone should ALWAYS say up front whether the dog survives), and how weird the religious turn at the end felt, even back in the day when I was quite religious myself.
I also remember being annoyed that the book covered so little of Jenkins' actual journey (he made it, what? a little more than 1/3 of the way?), but at the time I did not care enough to go look for the next installment. Today I went looking, with the great ease of the internet now at my fingertips, and was even more annoyed by what I found out about the second book and the progression of Jenkins' married life. I mean... his life progressed as many do and I've come to believe that divorce is ultimately a force for good in this world, but when you extol your marriage as the will of God, the dramatic irony leaves a sour taste like hypocrisy in my mouth.
I won't read the second book. This one was definitely interesting as far as it went, but I don't need to dive any deeper down the rabbit hole of Jenkins' faith or doomed marriage.
I was thinking about it recently after I finished a 7-day hike on the AT and was hit with a serious, debilitating illness right after getting off the trail. I wound up at the ER, where my case was diagnosed as vertigo - a very simple malady, when you get right down to it, but one that would have been crippling if it had happened out on the trail. My mind immediately flashed to the scene in this book when Jenkins became extremely sick out on the road, completely alone and without help. If I remember right, he crawled into an abandoned shack and basically laid around nearly dying of his illness AND dehydration for three days before...? What? How did he get out of it? Somehow that part has faded away.
I remember having been horrified when I first read this section, with no real concept of what it might mean to be that alone. Thinking back on it now doubled my sense of horror. I'm astonished he survived.
Other than that, my recollections of the book have to do with how little prepared he was for what he decided to undertake, how National Geographic simply had to find out about his plans to shower him with equipment, how profoundly unnecessary the death of the dog was (sorry - I'm not going to mark that with a spoiler - someone should ALWAYS say up front whether the dog survives), and how weird the religious turn at the end felt, even back in the day when I was quite religious myself.
I also remember being annoyed that the book covered so little of Jenkins' actual journey (he made it, what? a little more than 1/3 of the way?), but at the time I did not care enough to go look for the next installment. Today I went looking, with the great ease of the internet now at my fingertips, and was even more annoyed by what I found out about the second book and the progression of Jenkins' married life. I mean... his life progressed as many do and I've come to believe that divorce is ultimately a force for good in this world, but when you extol your marriage as the will of God, the dramatic irony leaves a sour taste like hypocrisy in my mouth.
I won't read the second book. This one was definitely interesting as far as it went, but I don't need to dive any deeper down the rabbit hole of Jenkins' faith or doomed marriage.
straylight's review against another edition
3.0
While a decent read, it was hardly the 'wilderness adventure' type story for which I was originally looking. I read this book for a class, and the story does provide an interesting perspective of the time during which it was written.
laurehender's review against another edition
4.0
Disclaimer... I did not finish this book, but I loved what I read of it. Sadly, I'm a stupid STUPID STUPID person, and I looked at the middle picture inserts before I actually got to them. There is one picture that is a major spoiler if you do that, and I was so sad that I couldn't bring myself to read about it. So note to self: never look ahead at pictures.
That being said, this book is amazing! I always read these kind of books when I'm feeling wanderlust but am either too busy or too broke to travel. And this book definitely satisfies with it's in depth explanations of people and places that Peter Jenkins runs into on his adventure to find himself. This story is so inspiring, and I recommend it for anyone who longs to backpack their life away but cannot!
That being said, this book is amazing! I always read these kind of books when I'm feeling wanderlust but am either too busy or too broke to travel. And this book definitely satisfies with it's in depth explanations of people and places that Peter Jenkins runs into on his adventure to find himself. This story is so inspiring, and I recommend it for anyone who longs to backpack their life away but cannot!
jacquet_mipa's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25