Ellen H.

While a beautifully designed book, as a woman I just can’t get over the utter lack of presence of his wife -in the story, in their life choices, in the pictures. I feel uneasy with the rave reviews, thinking - here is another guy that turns his obviously precarious mental health into an ode to himself and his simplistic ways to “solve” his issues, and from what it looks without regard for any of the needs of his wife. Are the mental challenges solved? At which expense to his wife, his family? He obviously has not only childhood trauma to overcome, but also a very obvious case of extreme ADHD -inattentive and hyper active. While a lot of his experiences in and with nature a hauntingly beautiful and could serve as a model for all of us, especially the ones fully coddled in the cozy shackles of civilization - I still feel that he has not solved or fully addressed the many issues that create so much internal suffering, And that really takes away from concentrating on the lessons he likes to give in this book - so all in all I am not inclined to enjoy this book as much as apparently many other readers and critics did. If he would have stuck to a less self-centred biographic approach and would have included his wife’s story and concentrated a bit more on the exploration of his self prescribed, natural lifestyle, I would’ve enjoyed it more. Kudos to the beautiful design of the book all the way to the choice of paper. Frida, you are my hero in all this, my heart goes out to you!