Though I originally found the author's style to be difficult to read, I soon began to fall into the story of an extremely complex man who is both moved by his ambition and held back by the seemingly overwhelming power of his own vision. Conway is endlessly complex and that alone draws the reader into the story. While it may sound odd, I can say that the picture that Gilbert draws of the man is the most human character I have ever read about.

More than a biography, a view of one man's attempt to live life his way, written by one of his peers. Touching, thoughtful, and all-encompassing.

A really wild story of a man still very much alive and trying to live his dreams. We all are but not with quite the intensity and focus that Gilbert describes. This wa also my intro to Gilbert’s writing and she does an outstanding job of creating a story arc and conversation that keeps you engaged with Eustice, making sure we see both the tragedy and the triumph in him.

I gave this three stars because despite the fact that Liz Gilbert is an excellent writer, I thought the main character, Eustace, was a big jerk in a lot of ways. I just didn't find him that interesting and at times a total turnoff.

Concise, tidy, humorous, quirky.. I wanted this story to go on and on... even though it is a bio (whatcha gonna do? It ends where it ends). This was a book that "found me"... in that I picked it up in a "take a book, leave a book" library and quite frankly, it found me at the right time. I enjoyed this much more than Eat, Pray, Love (which I somehow came across BEFORE it was an Oprah find, thank goodness, or I probably would have shunned it). So yeah, not certain if the themes within the book just resonated with me, or if it was the great story-telling and character development. I have an acute interest in living off-grid... more in tune with nature... Eustace was and IS doing it. Gilbert breaks Eustace down to his very core. She obviously did thorough research for this book, using Eustace's own words, diaries, thoughts... talking to his family, friends and exes... and being a close, personal friend. His relationship with his father, overly critical and emotionally and verbally abusive... Eustace is an over-achiever and truly a remarkable and intelligent person... and yet he and his father are impossibly critical of him and his every move. Gilbert looks at what he does that works, his charisma and how he fails. A tad about current and past American society. Gender roles and dynamics between men and women in our society. That despite the fact that Eustace is a true "mountain man" and by all appearances, is a real American hero, champion of nature, something we should all strive to be more like, even he is human, fatally flawed, un-able to see past his own deficiencies. He wants to save the world with his youthful exuberance. Gilbert demonstrates how his critical nature drives those closest to him away. How difficult it is to change, even when we know what we need to change. No human is perfect, and sometimes in our own perfection we are our own worst enemy.

I'm torn on how to rate this, but I have to go with the 3 star approach because try as I may, I just plain don't enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert's writing. She has this unnerving habit of inserting herself into everything, and making even someone else's biography somehow about her.

All that said, I'm not going to lie...I chose this book because there was a beautiful, bearded sonofabitch on the cover and that's my kryptonite. The overview of Eustace Conway's life was intriguing enough to actually move past the cover, and so I did. SPOILER ALERT: as is the main theme of the book, Eustace is kind of a douche-canoe. Wait, that's not fair. He's a raging control freak when it comes to the land he has worked his whole entire life to acquire, and I get that. What is incredibly compelling is how he did it all, and that alone is worth the read. I mean, all ass-hattery aside, this guy had a vision and made that vision come true through pure, unadulterated sacrifice and hard work. It's beyond amazing what he has accomplished in life, and you begin to understand his personal issues as the book goes on (I even suspect there are some deeper things going on).

After I read the book I searched for some more current information on Eustace and ran across a TED Talk he did, fascinating! I wish he had written the book himself and left Elizabeth Gilbert completely out of the picture, as the most interesting parts were direct excerpts from his personal journals.

I wanted to walk right out into the woods and not look back.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book...I think I definitely dislike it more than I like it, much in the same way I dislike Eustace more than I like him. While I admire his tenacious vision and his way of life (often being intrigued and fascinated by his abilities and adventures), I found myself constantly at odds with him as an individual. For someone who professes to know the answer/cure to the modern American malaise that has settled over this country and it's people, Eustace is a very judgmental, harsh, narcissistic egotist, with delusions of grandeur as big as the day is long. His inability to find peace with not only his family (which is hard for anyone, admittedly) but with total strangers, coming to him for guidance, is so engrained with his own shortcomings that he is unwilling to see his own fault in many of these situations/relationships. He also characteristically shows an unwillingness to bend or compromise, and to not be open to other ways and perspectives is a sign of immaturity and one that is at the core of Eustace's belief systems, which ultimately amount to "my way or the highway". Not the best stance for a supposed role model. I could continue, but I don't want to bash a man who so clearly needs nothing but kindness. Despite all this however, I spent the majority of the book fascinated by his life and there are a few hidden gems of wisdom that I felt I connected with. Interesting and introspective, this book chronicled one man seeking to find his purpose...and isn't that what we're all doing?

Pas le meilleur livre de Elizabeth Gilbert. Ça finit par tourner en rond, on ne va pas au fond de l'histoire du personnage. J'ai tout de même aimé le sujet départ et appris quelques trucs sur la vie sans eau courante et sans électricité.

Tells the story of Eustace Conway, an adventurer and outdoorsman who left his parent's house for an extended stay living in the woods and off the land for the first time at the age of 12, eventually moving into a tipi for 17 years, then buying up 1,000 acres to use as a "primitive" farm and outdoor classroom for countless volunteers, school groups, etc. Conway wants (or at one time wanted) to save humanity by convincing folks that escaping the 9-to-5 rat race and reconvening with nature weren't far-fetched goals.

Overall, I think Gilbert does a great job of expounding on not only Conways triumphs, but his failures as well. She seems to format her book based on the reader's expected emotional response to various parts of her story, which I found really interesting. I enjoyed the celebratory tone of certain romanticized anecdotes, as well as the juxtaposition of these stories with the crushing tragedy of Conway's shortcomings (his tumultous personal/social life and weakened relationship with his family members). A good read; inspiring, with Gilbert remaining uncompromising in her thorough examination of the contexts in which Conway exists as a hero, a near-villain, and everything in between.