After enjoying Bryson’s book “A Short History of Almost Everything” it was a natural move for me to consider reading a couple of his other books and I am glad that I decided to do so. I chose “A Walk in the Woods” his tale about returning from England to New Hampshire and deciding to hike the Appalachian Trail. Not “Hike the Appalachian Trail” like the linguistic twist of the Gov. Mark Sanford story. You remember that one right. The Governor disappeared for a few days and returned saying he was hiking the trail when in fact he was out of the country having an affair. No, Bill Bryson actually walked a significant part of the 2000 mile trail from Georgia to Maine with a friend and wrote about this back to nature experience.
I think what I like most about Bryson is his humor. Very dry at times, but given to word plays and expected responses that are very real and genuinely funny. In this book he has frequent opportunities to show all of his humor in relating this almost year long adventure. From his afternoon at the Outdoor Mountain Equipment store to his fascination with black bear attacks; his book is a running commentary, sort of emptying his mind of all that is contained on the subject. We hear his thoughts, he tells us his words and he speculates what others are thinking. In some ways I am reminded of reading James Joyce’s Ulysses in college. I had a professor, a Joycian expert, who walked us through the bulk of the book, examining the thoughts, words and deeds of the protagonist. I’m not comparing Bryson to Joyce, mercy no, I am just saying that Bryson’s style of getting us to his actions, words and thoughts is similar.
A good way to see all of this is to look at the part of the book dealing with preparation with the trip. His exploits at the hiking gear store are just tear-producing hysterical. From his telling why he chose that particular store – because his son worked there, to the instructions given to him by his son – not to do ANYTHING that would embarrass him such as trying on ladies hats, we are exposed to his humor and humanity. He hooks up with a store expert on hiking equipment, the kind of gentlemen who can discuss the positives and negatives of carbon fiber tent poles for four hours, and spends the better part of a day looking at, trying out and buying hundreds of dollars worth of equipment. All the while not understanding why a $250 backpack is neither waterproof nor equipped with straps – separate purchase for $69.95. He will not pay $70 for a designer ground cover when the local K-Mart has one for $6.95, and he debates the sleeping bag purchase because one is 3 ounces lighter than another. That is until he attempts to lift and put on the pack and describes the staggering feeling of all those ounces adding up to all those pounds on his back.
Another funny section is Bryson’s detailing of worrying about bear attacks. He reads several books all of which point out the unpredictability of black bear attacks and relates several stories involving bears having hikers for snacks. They seem to be particularly fond of snickers bars that many hikers carry. He sort of leaves that out there for the reader to digest then offers two stories. One is the fact that his hiking companion has his bags stuffed with snickers bars and then just when his anxiety is at a high point, he is talking to someone who transports people to the beginning of the trail who assures him that bears aren’t the problem, wolf attacks are. The whole story about these two hikers going grocery shopping is also very funny.
In this book we get the thrill of the hike, the humor of the author, a history lesson about the Appalachian Trail, an ecology lesson about forests and mountains and all the animals contained in them. The Long Walk is not a complicated book. In between the laughs and fears, we get real humanity struggling with why he is doing this and that is what makes this a great reading and a wonderfully entertaining book. Kudos Mr. Bryson!
(BTW next on my agenda are a couple of Malcom Gladwell tomes...)
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