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A review by snukes
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
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.