Reviews

Perhaps being unsettled, rattled, angry, and somewhat jarred is the whole point of this book. Wilson may be GLAD that parts of her book made us squirm, made us question.
I skimmed a few reviews of the book just now, because I was surprised at the rating it is receiving. For me, This One Wild and Precious Life was a justifacation of so many feelings I have been struggling with in regard to the world around me: the disconnection, the disregard for nature, the constant consuming and surface-level conversations that we encounter in our daily life. I read somewhere that an author (Brene Brown, perhaps?) once said that she knows a book is good when she wants to throw it across the room. I think the fact that Wilson's book is one of those books that makes us a bit uncomfortable shows that her message is something we need to hear. Sometimes the truth of our behavior is hard to swallow.
As to her style of writing and her choice of words, is she perfect? No. Are there times in the book when the English Major in me cringed? Yes. But, her conversational writing is different. It got my attention. Not having the actual references in the book annoyed me at first...until I realized that by going to her website she has continually updated resources. If you read the entire book, listen to her message of humanness and hope, I think we can see that she knows she is not perfect. She may make the "wrong" word choice, or make comparisons that we find faulty or unreasonable. BUT, the message is what shines through. Her talking about our feelings of disconnection and her subsequent call to action are the point. Her deviance is the point, and I find that inspiring.