Wild: An Elemental Journey
by Jay Griffiths
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Description
I took seven years over this work, spent all I had, my time, money and energy. Part of the journey was a green riot and parts a deathly bleakness. I got ill, I got well. I went to the freedom fighters of West Papua and sang my head off in their highlands. I met cannibals infinitely kinder and more trustworthy than the murderous missionaries who evangelise them. I anchored a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept; ate witchetty grubs and visited sea gypsies. I found a paradox of wildness show more in the glinting softness of its charisma, for what is savage is in the deepest sense gentle and what is wild is kind. In the end - a strangely sweet result - I came back to a wild home ... show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
hohlwelt Complements very well with what Jared Diamond misses and vice versa.
Member Reviews
Such a difficult book to categorise as it transcends travel and emotion.
The book is in sections based on Wild something, e.g. Wild Water and Wild Air and Griffiths had written about her experiences of people and places in these zones.
Parts of it were really good, and a delight to read, other parts were tough because of the subject matter.
The last part was entitled Wild Mind, and she wrote about her experiences of a separation and the trauma following this.
Good at times, but not fantastic
The book is in sections based on Wild something, e.g. Wild Water and Wild Air and Griffiths had written about her experiences of people and places in these zones.
Parts of it were really good, and a delight to read, other parts were tough because of the subject matter.
The last part was entitled Wild Mind, and she wrote about her experiences of a separation and the trauma following this.
Good at times, but not fantastic
Wild - a very confusing story should be the title. I found the author jumped around alot in the book and although some of the description used in the book was very awe-inducing, I found that she repeated herself quite alot.
I did not finish this book because after a while I found her writing to be annoying and she was a little bit condescending and patronising
I did not finish this book because after a while I found her writing to be annoying and she was a little bit condescending and patronising
Best. Book. Ever.
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Author Information
16+ Works 752 Members
Jay Griffiths is the author of A Sideways Look at Time, Savage Grace, A Country Called Childhood, and A Love Letter from a Stray Moon. She won the Orion Book Award and the Barnes Noble Discover Award for the best new nonfiction writer to be published in the USA and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Travel, Science & Nature, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 304.2 — Social sciences Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Factors affecting social behavior Human ecology
- LCC
- GF50 .G75 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Human ecology. Anthropogeography Human ecology. Anthropogeography
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 226
- Popularity
- 143,375
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.43)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 3
