Will Geiger-Outside Reading: "The Last American Man"

"The Last American Man" by Elizabeth Gilbert, is the story of Eustace Conway, a man who lives on a thirty acre plot of land in a teepee, propagating a low impact lifestyle with an emphasis on personal connection to the land. Gilbert interviews friends and family about Conway and discovers that he has become what he is today as a result of a troubled childhood in which academic excellence was of paramount importance to his emotionally and physically abusive father and his passive mother encouraged him to do what he loved, experience the outdoors. He would study Native American craftsmanship for hours obsessively, learning how to weave and create tools just as American Indians had done for centuries before. His lifestyle seems to be a product of a retreat from his torturous home life. The way Gilbert describes his way of life and the attitude he has about the world reminds me of some of the stories I've heard of people hiking the Appalachian Trail and the transformation that they experience, a simplification of their lives.