A review by meghan111
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

3.0

If you’ve ever found yourself up late at night, buying a replica working butter churn on eBay, you should relate to this. In her mid 30s, a woman in Chicago finds herself revisiting her favorite childhood books, the Little House on the Prairie series. Fueled by nostalgia, she embarks on a Laura Ingalls Wilder obsession and tries to discover what it was about the books that so captivated her as a child. This leads her to visit several sites– from the homesteads to the museums – accompanied by her long-suffering, kind of disinterested husband. She’s exploring her interest in the historical objects and the pioneer way of life that is described with such attention to detail in the series. Along the way, she talks about the difficult character of Rose Wilder, Laura’s daughter and co-author, whose life was very different than Laura’s childhood on the prairie and who was in some ways an adventurer, but also a deeply unhappy woman. The difference between the Laura of the books and the TV show also bothers McClure – but really, the appeal of this book is revisiting your childhood pleasures as an adult, seeing them differently and letting them shed light on your current life.