  
 
I read this all the way through in one sitting. I realize that it's only about 165 pages or so, but that's still not something I do quite often, as I read at a conversational (i.e. slow) pace. To be fair, I was also home from work with a wretched sore throat and had nothing else to do but be in bed reading. But this was a great way to pass that miserable time. As a woman who's spent quite a bit of time outside and isn't afraid of the outdoors, I found this to be a very interesting read. It's about a boy who runs away from home to live in the wilderness - and he succeeds. I have friends who 'live off the land,' without running water, without electricity, without plumbing, but this beats all that in a way that I've never actually seen in real life. Still, it seems plausible enough, and has some interesting historical touches here and there (the book was written in the fifties, so, for example, when the boy does run into other human beings and receives news of the world, they tell him about the latest atom bomb tests that have occurred and things of that nature). I loved this book right up until about the last five or so pages, and was dismayed by the ending, but everything leading up to that still made it more than worthwhile. This is a book worth seeking out.
|
