Wild: An Elemental Journey

Wild: An Elemental Journey is a 2006 book by the British writer Jay Griffiths.

Book

Publication history

Wild was published by Tarcher in the United States in 2006 and by Hamish Hamilton in the UK in 2007.[lower-alpha 1] Penguin Books issued a paperback version in 2008.[1]

Synopsis

Wild describes a seven-year odyssey to wildernesses representing the five traditional elements of earth, ice, water, air and fire, the connection between human society and wild lands. Earth is the Amazon rainforest; ice is the Canadian Arctic; the Indonesian island of Bajo, near Sulawesi, is water; the Australian outback is fire; and West Papua's montane forests represent air.[2]

It is also an intellectual travel,[2] a journey into wild mind, as Griffiths explores the words and meanings which shape people's ideas and experience of wildness, the wildness of the human spirit.[3] The book includes the description of drinking ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon, as a treatment for depression, and discusses shamanism, nomadism and freedom. Chapters describe journeys to the Arctic, to Australia and to the freedom fighters of West Papua.[4][5]

Reception

On publication in the UK, Wild was praised widely in major newspapers; it was described as "part travelogue, part call to arms and wholly original... A vital, unique and uncategorisable celebration of the spirit of life".[5] The Independent called it "remarkable" and "stupendous"[6] while Mark Cocker of The Guardian wrote: "Jay Griffiths is a five-star, card-carrying member of the hellfire club... a strange, utterly compelling book, Wild is easily the best, most rewarding travel book that I have read in the last decade."[2]

In The Sunday Times, Anthony Sattin wrote "There is no getting away from the book's brilliance"[7]

The Independent on Sunday described Wild "as a song of delight, and a cry of warning, poetic, erudite and insistent… a restless, unstintingly generous performance..."[8]

Richard Mabey in The Times wrote of its "kaleidoscopic narrative" and "exhilarating prose".[9]

Wild was successful in Australia where it received positive reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald, described by Bruce Elder as "The best book I read all year".[10]

During an interview about the experiences she described in Wild, Griffiths said, "To my mind, at worst, the West operates a kind of 'intellectual apartheid' – the idea that our way of thinking is the only one. Really, there are more ways of living and thinking than we could ever imagine."[11]

Wild is quoted on KT Tunstall's album Tiger Suit; she called it her favourite book.[12] The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture reads from Wild during their documentary for their album Angles, and comments: "Jay Griffiths's works are original, inspiring and dare you to search beyond the accepted norm."[13]

The Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien posted a recommendation of Wild on the band's blog, stating that it was "an astonishing piece of writing " and that "it was exactly what I needed to read".[14]

Notes
  1. In 2012 Cheryl Strayed published a book titled Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found in the United States, where the book has been retitled Savage Grace.

References
  1. "Wild". WorldCat. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. Cocker, Mark (9 June 2007). "Where the wild things are". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  3. "Wild by Jay Griffiths". Hamish Hamilton. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  4. Moss, Stephen (6 June 2007). "Call of the wild". The Guardian.
  5. Beetlestone, Ian (20 May 2007). "The final frontierswoman".
  6. Green, Toby (25 May 2007). "Wild, by Jay Griffiths". The Independent. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  7. Sattin, Anthony (9 December 2007). "The best travel books of 2007". The Sunday Times.
  8. Gibbs, Jonathan (3 June 2007). "Wild by Jay Griffiths". The Independent on Sunday.
  9. Mabey, Richard (26 May 2007). "Wild". The Times.
  10. Turnbull, Sue (15 December 2007). "The pick of the literary crop". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  11. Green, Graeme (16 July 2007). "60 SECONDS: Jay Griffiths". Metro.co.uk.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. The Strokes (12 February 2010). The Strokes 2010 Recording for next album PART 1. Manhattan's Avatar Studios: YouTube.com. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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