The Last American Man

by Elizabeth Gilbert

Finalist for the National Book Award 2002

Look out for Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, on sale now!
In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Nature, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Book Club, Adventure

271 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2002

About the author

Elizabeth Gilbert is an award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her short story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award, and her novel Stern Men was a New York Times notable book. Her 2002 book The Last American Man was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award.

Her memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, spent 57 weeks in the #1 spot on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. It has shipped over 6 million copies in the US and has been published in over thirty languages. A film adaptation of the book was released by Columbia Pictures with an all star cast: Julia Roberts as Gilbert, Javier Bardem as Felipe, James Franco as David, Billy Crudup as her ex-husband and Richard Jenkins as Richard from Texas.

Her latest novel, The Signature of All Things, will be available on October 1, 2013. The credit for her profile picture belongs to Jennifer Schatten.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a librarian, people often ask me for my book recommendations, and then I get discouraged when they stubbornly refuse to take them. The Last American Man is a book that I wish I could get more people to read.

You may recognize the name Elizabeth Gilbert from her bestselling memoir Eat Pray Love. The problem with a massive success like EPL is that people seem to have pigeonholed Gilbert into only one genre, when the truth — as my fellow readers already know — is that good writers are artists and can create beautiful works in many styles and genres. Gilbert is such an artist.

So before I start on my actual review, if you disliked or have an attitude about Eat Pray Love, that's OK, but please do not automatically discount this other Gilbert book. It is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from EPL. Give it a chance. Here endeth my lecture.

The Last American Man is a biography about Eustace Conway, but it's much more than that because Gilbert also covers gender studies and explores the origins of masculinity in America. What does it mean to be a man in our society? What do we expect from men? I thought this discussion was just as important and interesting as the stories about Conway.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me begin at the beginning and share the marvelous opening paragraph:

By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree. By the time he was ten, he could hit a running squirrel at fifty feet with a bow and arrow. When he turned twelve, he went out into the woods, alone and empty-handed, built himself a shelter, and survived off the land for a week. When he turned seventeen, he moved out of his family's home altogether and headed into the mountains, where he lived in a teepee of his own design, made fire by rubbing two sticks together, bathed in icy streams, and dressed in the skins of the animals he had hunted and eaten. This move occurred in 1977, by the way. Which was the same year the film Star Wars was released.

Eustace Conway

Gilbert documents many of Conway's outdoor adventures, including hiking all 2,000 miles of the Appalachian trail, during which he survived almost exclusively on what he hunted and gathered along the way, and riding his horse across America in 103 days, which was a world record. Conway has also "hiked across the German Alps (in sneakers), kayaked across Alaska, scaled cliffs in New Zealand, and lived with the Navajo of New Mexico. When he was in his mid-twenties, he decided to study a primitive culture more closely in order to learn even more ancient skills. So he flew to Guatemala, got off the plane and basically started asking, 'Where are the primitive people at?' He was pointed toward the jungle, where he hiked for days and days until he found the remotest village of Mayan Indians, many of whom had never before seen a white person. He lived with the Maya for about five months, learning the language, studying the religion, perfecting his weaving skills."

I found Eustace Conway to be fascinating and infuriating at the same time, and it seems I'm not alone in either sentiment. Gilbert details numerous interactions people have with Eustace, and everyone from drug dealers in New York City to 5-year-old kids to surly teenagers have been charmed by his magnetism. Women are also drawn to Conway, but his ideas of traditional gender roles have caused some problems in his relationships. For example, one girlfriend freaked out when she learned that Conway wanted more than a dozen children. Another woman finally got fed up with Conway's perfectionism and his demands about hunting and cooking.

And then there is the issue of what it means to be a "real man." Gilbert weaves thoughtful passages about masculinity throughout the book:

Briefly, the history of America goes like this: there was a frontier, and then there was no longer a frontier. It all happened rather quickly. There were Indians, then explorers, then settlers, then towns, then cities. Nobody was really paying attention until the moment the wilderness was officially tamed, at which point everybody wanted it back. Within the general spasm of nostalgia that ensued (Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Frederic Remington's cowboy paintings) there came a very specific cultural panic, rooted in the question What will become of our boys?

The problem was that, while the classic European coming-of-age story generally featured a provincial boy who moved to the city and was transformed into a refined gentleman, the American tradition had evolved into the opposite. The American boy came of age by leaving civilization and striking out toward the hills. There, he shed his cosmopolitan manners and became a robust and proficient man. Not a gentleman, mind you, but a man.

This book is so rich and complex and well-written that I could probably max out my review limit by including dozens of quotes and passages. There are incredible sections on Conway's survival skills, on his difficult relationship with his father, on his lectures that he gives to schools, and on the land he bought to preserve in North Carolina, which he named Turtle Island. But I shall resist the urge to overwhelm you with text and share just one final quote from the Epilogue:

The history of Eustace Conway is the history of man's progress on the North American continent. First, he slept on the ground and wore furs. He made fire with sticks and ate what he could hunt and gather. When he was hungry, he threw stones at birds and blew darts at rabbits and dug up roots from the ground, and so he survived. He wove baskets from the trees in his domain. he was a nomad; he moved on foot. Then he moved into a teepee and became a more sophisticated trapper of animals. He made fire with flint and steel. When he mastered that, he used matches. He began to wear wool. He moved out of the teepee and into a simple wooden structure. He became a farmer, clearing the land and cultivating a garden. He acquired livestock. He cut paths into the woods, which became trails and then roads. He improved the roads with bridges. He wore denim.

He was first an Indian, then an explorer, than a pioneer. He built himself a cabin and became a true settler. As a man of utopian vision, he now sustains himself with the hope that like-minded people will buy property around Turtle Island and raise their families as he will someday raise his ... He evolves before our eyes. He improves and expands and improves and expands because he is so clever and so resourceful that he cannot help himself. He is not compelled to rest in the enjoyment of what he already knows how to do; he must keep moving on. He is unstoppable. And we are also unstoppable. We on this continent have always been unstoppable. We all progress, as de Tocqueville observed, 'like a deluge of men, rising unabatedly, and driven daily onward by the hand of God.' We exhaust ourselves and everyone else. And we exhaust our resources -- both natural and interior -- and Eustace is only the clearest representation of our urgency.

One of the things I like about Gilbert is that she became famous for Eat Pray Love, which is considered by some to be a feminist work, and yet Last American Man, which she wrote before she took that famous trip to Italy, India and Indonesia, is all about masculinity. Virginia Woolf once said that writers must be androgynous, and Gilbert has certainly accomplished that. (For the record, she is also an accomplished novelist and has written a book of short stories.)

I have now read Last American Man twice, once in print and once on audio, and I have enjoyed it so much I am sure I will read it again. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes outdoor adventures, environmentalism, sociology, gender studies, the psychology of families, biographies or history. In short, I would recommend it to everyone.

[G (galen) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a random meeting, a freak of fate. Walking into my local public library I saw this book on a shelf I was passing, and thought "What... there aren't any men in America anymore?" Intrigued, I picked it up, positive it was some take-back-the-country-from-the-feminists spiel from some conservative talking head. I was a bit surprised to see it was written by a woman. What the heck… I’d check it out (mostly to see what had happened to all the men in America).
And then I was completely blown away by this book.
And by this amazing author.
Basically, it is the biography of Eustace Conway who was obsessed with wilderness survival from childhood, and becomes a counterculture hero, buying up wilderness land, and letting people come live ‘off the land’ with him.
Elizabeth details his life, his dreams, his lessons, his shortcomings, and his family relationships with such easy humor and profundity.

Now… here is the thing, Elizabeth made this so much more than just a biography of one man. Just the life and times of Eustace Conway would have been interesting, but that’s all.
She instead is writing about a place in time, about changing expectations, about America’s changing landscape and lifestyle, about the disconnect between what used to be and what is, about people’s fantasy’s with the wilderness and with celebrities and about realities about both.

And she just writes so dang well, one cannot help but be charmed and delighted.

[Jeff Nicholson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eustace Conway could teach us all a thing or two about how we should live on this earth. Unfortunately, all Elizabeth Gilbert wants to teach us is about his father issues and his relationships with women. There is almost no wilderness ethic to be had; the book reads like the diary of a 12-year-old girl smitten by a mountain man. It's difficult to think of Gilbert as a serious journalist when she constantly fawns over her subject and actually appears (unflatteringly) in the narrative herself. She wastes paper talking about her hook-up with his brother in NYC (no doubt visualizing Eustace in his place). How does this teach me anything? Glad it's a library book...

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely read books about people unless it is someone I greatly admire. My brother gave me this book and suggested I read it, with the caveat that he had not read it yet but wanted to – so I gave it a shot.

As I read this book, I had multiple feelings about it. As it started I really like the book – the stories of Conway’s youth were interesting, his abilities at a young age to survive outdoors were admirable and I could see him maturing into someone worthy of a book, looking forward to learning of his accomplishments later in life. As I read, it became clear Conway is not deserving of a book. I began to think he had the potential to be someone worthy of a book, but was not there yet. Then as the book went on I grew more and more tired of it – of him. The back of the book starts off by saying “The Last American Man is the story of Eustace Conway, a true American original.” Bull. He is not an American Original, there have been Charlatans in America since the beginning, and make no mistake: Eustace Conway is a Charlatan in every sense of the word.

The author is clearly captivated with Conway, and pours praise on him throughout the book; she can quote Conway saying arrogant, hypocritical things and yet frame it with praise. Thankfully she quotes others who do not share her infatuation; others who give us an inkling of who Conway really is. If you only read one part of the whole book, read the conversation with CuChullaine O’Reilly in Ch. 7, it explains Conway very well. It is unclear if O’Reilly has ever personally met Conway, but he is well aware of Conway’s feats, and he puts it this way:

“[Conway has] reached a plateau in his life. He’s pushed himself as far as he can go using his charisma and courage, and now he needs to go on a spiritual journey. He needs to do something that is private. He’s postured himself in public for so many years that he doesn’t know himself. There are parts of his soul he can’t begin to understand, and until he learns those things about himself, he’ll never be the nomad he’s meant to be. He’s a brave man, but he’s not a spiritual pilgrim yet. Until he goes out into the world, all alone, and cuts away the ropes and publicity and ego and bullsh** and does something truly heroic, he’s just blowing smoke up his own ass…he needs to get away from it all. He should stop trying to save the world.” (pg. 189)

I couldn't have said it better. The book does a great job demonstrating Conway’s problems, he is full of contradictions. If you pay him to speak to your group, you'll get a speech about how we should enjoy nature, yet he doesn't allow those who follow him to do just that. He is so focused on publicity that he rides across America on a horse for one singular reason – focused on one goal – and it has nothing to do with nature. He is focused on setting a world record. Riding across America on a horse in the shortest time ever…others come along thinking it will be fun, thinking they can learn from him. But they can’t. He is so focused on the world record and the shallow praise from the ignorant masses he tramples over everyone in his path. People who could add meaning to his life are lost in his relentless quest of self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. He set another world record in a horse drawn buggy under similar circumstances. Then we get to hear over and over about his poor emotional state.

He travels around charging money to tell people to live simply and with nature and yet he buys a thousand acres and immediately starts clearing forests, building roads and buildings, and desires to someday live in a mansion with 40 foot cathedral ceilings.

The book ends with Conway categorically stating he is a fraud: “When I go out in public, I deliberately try to present myself as this wild guy who just came down off the mountain, and I’m aware that it’s largely an act. I know I’m a showman.” (pg. 266) He goes on to say he must do it for the benefit of the people. He could live a secluded life and actually practice what he preached but who would benefit? The world needs him to show them the way. We are so lost, Conway’s duty is to let us know (in his own words) “If I say I’m right, then you can be sure I am right, because I don’t make mistakes” (pg. 213) Funny thing, since the book is focused on the fact that he has made a lot of mistakes.

At the end of the day that is what I really grew fed up with. His life is a mess and he insists on blaming it on anyone but himself, he does what he does because the world needs him and the world is the cause of his messed up life. The author continually brings up his grandfather and father to offer an excuse to why Conway is the way he is, rarely if ever placing blame where it belongs. Why write a book about a messed up guy? What can we learn from this? Why in the world would we ever consider him the Last American Man? There are plenty of guys just like him – guys trying to make a living, dreaming of mansions on a hill, screwing up relationships. He is not much different from the Average American Man; he just has a different backdrop.

[Herbie]

I love this story.
I love people who dream an intense, crystal clear dream, and then arrange their lives to see it come true.
I love people who work hard.
I harbor a strange and conflicted love for old-fashioned living and values, and for primitive living. Gilbert describes the conflicts I feel so acutely. The wilderness life she descries combines backwards attitudes about gender and the impracticality and seeming irrelevance of it all with sublime moments, connection with nature, and the inner strength that comes from extreme physical discomfort.

I find the author and her subject utterly honest.

When I finish reading this book, I want to work a little harder to change the world. I want to hold fierce to my dreams. I believe in limitless potential again.
I love this story.

First read: 2010 January 29.
Second read: 2011 May 22.

[Brice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last American man is attempting to save our once great nation from its own greed and sloth by living in harmony with nature. Which obviously is not the exciting part of the book. Eustace Conway’s smaller and more successful journeys may be the exciting part of the book. What this guy has done in the name of fun, adventure, and self exertion kept my attention through the first halfish. Then rooting for Eustace to save our nation from the sedentary lifestyle, TV, and stupidity kept me in it for the second half. I often forgot that the time line ends way before my time and found myself rooting for the guy to fix US. Have you ever experienced the suspension of disbelief on a national cultural level? It’s weird, as is Eustace Conway’s life. Elizabeth Gilbert weaves her fauxamerican experience, Eustace’s borderline insanity and deep aspects of U.S. culture into a great read.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up The Last American Man thinking I was going to read about some environmentalist guy livin' out in the woods to prove a point to the world. While that is basically what the book is about- the author outlines a very different kind of man than you would expect to be living life in the woods. Eustace Conway is not only living on his 1000 acres of land, killing his own food and making his own shelter and clothing from surrounding materials- he is surprisingly a well versed businessman, a tortured soul still trying to heal his childhood wounds, and- frankly- he's kind of an asshole. Definately not the free-loving hippie you might expect.

The book was good, well-written and certainly interesting as it disects this mans life and personality and comes up with some surprising conclusions!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eustace Conway is a terribly fascinating and tremendously unique individual, exactly the sort of person that deserves a biography. Unfortunately, this is not the book he deserves.

Too many biographers (which is to say, more than none) make the mistake that Elizabeth Gilbert makes here. She has trouble staying out of the way of the story that would be conveyed by nothing more complicated than a straight narrative with some judicious focus on key events. That, I believe could have made for an exceptional read, because Conway is so fascinating all by himself. And of course, that approach should not be considered unusual - the burden of proof should always be on the author to show that additional embellishments will add, rather than subtract, from the finished work.

In the book we have here, Gilbert is apt to state the key lessons of a story - as she sees it - after she is finished telling the story. At best, this is unnecessary, and at worst it is a distraction to find yourself disagreeing with someone's interpretation of events. The idea of biography is to bring a person into relief for the reader by removing as much inter-mediation as possible. Instead, her approach implies that "more is more", that by assaulting the facts with analysis, we can go deeper. In this case, quite the contrary.

This habit is at its worst when Gilbert spends long passages talking to herself, it would seem, as she attempts to figure out what makes Conway tick. It is clear in these passages that she subscribes to another common biographical illusion - that people's behavior follows some explicable narrative. That is to say, to believe that a person's behavior is internally consistent with itself. And what a shame. Biography is the ideal medium to illustrate how far from reality this belief usually is. In the world I live in, every person retains some degree of mystery. The narratives we construct to attempt an explanation of a person's decisions, compulsions, or flaws are almost always inadequate. People say one thing and do another, usually innocently, often without themselves realizing it. We build these illusions about ourselves and about each other, with equal failure.

This "narrative illusion" makes Gilbert wonder at length about the nature of Conway's relationship with his father. She is amazed that his father seems to say one thing and do another, as if he is breaking some kind of rule. She is equally impressed that the son continues seeking approval after so many years, though she shouldn't be, since it is likely compulsion that drives Conway, not any sense of dedication. All of this fuss is unfortunate, because the imperfect truth is endlessly fascinating - more fascinating than her explanations, which seldom seem to hold water.

Eustace Conway is truly extraordinary. What combination of environment, chance, circumstance, and determination produced this life? As always, it is difficult to separate what was inevitable from what was luck of the draw. But it is illuminating after the first half of the book - where Eustace is painted as doing no wrong (another error - Gilbert even makes an attempt to try to justify away his bad grades in school) - to see that he is ultimately predisposed to failure at critical things - he is unable to maintain a healthy relationship, given his other character traits. Even more amazingly, he is a virtually complete failure at his professed mission of getting other people to fundamentally change their lifestyle. The strongest redemption for the book - and perhaps enough to make me recommend it despite my misgivings - is that Gilbert manages to show, in clear and appropriate light, just how rare and precious the times are when he succeeds. By staying out of the way, she betrays that it is not Conway's dedication alone, but the additional preponderance of circumstance and luck that blesses him with those successes.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's got it all; history, spirituality, primitive living skills, botany, you name it! I came across this book some where many years ago and have always meant to read it. I'm glad I finally took the time to do so.

As a therapist who specializes in working with folks on the Autistic Spectrum I was only in to the 2nd or 3rd chapter when it struck me; "Holy cow, this guy has Asperger's!" Just like a textbook example he had all the special interests (his interest in nature often comes across like an obsession to others), the social impairments (he lives in a teepee in the woods!, actually prefers to be alone and struggled greatly in intimate relationships and to foster any lasting commitment from any of his interns), his difficulty with communication (including non-verbal cues), and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, though, nowhere in the book did the author say anything about Asperger's Syndrome. After reading the book I did a google search for "Eustace Conway Asperger's" and came across a blog in which the author had a conversation with Eustace where he said that "recently he’d figured out that he has a mild form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome". Not only was this validating to my inner diagnostician (pat on the back) but also gave me a huge sense of relief that he was finally able to stumble upon a diagnosis. My experience in helping others achieve this insight is that it gives most "aspies" a sense of relief to finally have a word to package all the years of feeling different, misunderstood, etc. It also gives them a common language and culture by which to begin obtaining support, learning how to build on their inherent strengths, and developing compensatory techniques to manage some of the deficits. So the clinical aspects of this book were interesting to me on many levels.

I spend a fair amount of time living in nature throughout the year but nothing like Eustace Conway. I can wholeheartedly respect the amount of hard work, knowledge and tenacity it takes to do what he has done. A part of me yearns for primitive living and the ultimate commune with nature. The other part of me likes my xbox, packaged meals and warm bed too much!

All in all I was fascinated by Eustace's story and touched by the way he has tried to inspire others to live more simply. As Eustace continues building up his social skill set and decreasing the behaviors that push others away I believe he will begin to have more of a profound impact upon this world.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for the writing, 2 stars for the subject, so I'll round up to 3 since that's only fair to the author. I only started/finished this book because I have seen Eustace Conway on a reality show called "Mountain Men" and considered him to be an Appalachian buffoon who makes a mess out of everything. When my friend Joey told me there was a book about him, I had to check it out. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was written by Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote the mega-bestseller, "Eat, Pray, Love". I picked up that book but couldn't get past the Eat section, so never finished it. This book was written earlier, in 2003, and she tells the story of Conway, who since the age of 17, moved into the woods and lived off the land. She considers him a genius who's trying to show the world how to be a real man. I still consider him a buffoon, but now add arrogant, self-centered and anti-social to the list of adjectives describing him. He can't figure out why it's so hard to find a wife. All he wants is a smart, beautiful, submissive sex-slave who is willing to have 13 children for him. Need I say more?

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

After devouring Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, I ran to the bookstore and picked up this fascinating biography of Eustis Conway, who may or may not be the Last American Man, but he IS the last person you would want to live with or work for. He is in his own idealistic world that shuts out others and has no tolerance for varying levels of compentence or preferences that differ from his. Gilbert attempts to show why Conway is who he is, and the reader does develop empathy for this lost, misplaced-in-time man. I do think the cover shot is hot. And, once again, Gilbert's as perceptive as ever and very adept at painting a picture of a man, objectively, showing flaws and redeeming qualities all at once.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this as it seemed an interesting subject (the life and times of a guy who lives quite literally off the land - a "pioneer" if you will.) I have no idea what the point of this book was supposed to be - it is disorganized and strange, the author switching tones, style, and storyline within the same paragraph. I found myself wondering more about the relationship between the author and the subject (as in, when did she sleep with him and how long afterwards did she convince him to let her write a book about him so she could follow him around like a love-struck puppy) than the subject himself (who, as it turns out, sounds like an arrogant jerk.) I finished the book hoping with every page to learn the answer to these questions "What's the point?" and "What's so special about this guy anyway? Why should I care?"

I sadly never got an answer to any of them.

[Stephen Kiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never thought that Elizabeth Gilbert's nonfiction was as good as her novels, but this book comes close.
Yes, she won huge acclaim and a gigantic readership for Eat, Pray, Love -- but TED talk notwithstanding, it was in many ways inferior to her novel The Signature of All Things and even to Stern Men.
A friend gave me this book, a National Book Award finalist, and the topic fit Gilbert's world view, character fascinations and narrative powers: Eustace Conway, a character as large as any in her works of imagination.
In some ways this man is a role model, determined and courageous, a back-to-the-land pioneer capable of impressive feats and driven by an unrelenting belief that mankind has lost its connection to the natural world, where reality and contentment abide, and instead lives a life of frivolous consumption and wasted days.
But this is no superficial scorn. Conway builds a life out of those ideals, commits to them, never wavers. There are two results: one, he accomplishes things routinely that most people would be hard pressed to survive (land conservation, world record horseback journeys, etc). And two, he is insufferable -- an uncompromising, arrogant, stubborn, self-anointed hero.
That blend of characteristics makes him fascinating to watch, as Gilbert does, but not to worship, which Gilbert also does. Litanies of former lovers who were used and cast off (or ran for their lives), as well as interns who crumpled under Conway's silent approval (and also ran), friends and family members driven off by his overcertainty -- they populate the book with far less of the approval than the man who caused their misfortunes. The causes, namely a keen intellect and a cruel father, are in plain and painful sight.
It's a wonderfully ambiguous book, in other words, compelling from first page to last.

[Cher 'N Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - It was really good.

Every time I drive by my local high school and see a metrosexual boy in his skinny jeans with his emo hair, I thank God that I narrowly missed that dating pool selection. Masculinity is not exactly what it used to be, is it?

It would be difficult to explain what this book is about because it touches on so very many different topics, but the change in American culture, particularly the sharp decrease in self-sufficiency, is the main focus. There is also an exploration of family dynamics, ambition, environmentalism, shift in parenting trends and generational subcultures, minimalism, feminism, and the romantic quest to find "the right one". Towards the end, Gilbert list Eustace's wish list for his future wife, to which she reponds, "You can see how God himself might shake his head when handed such an invoice and say, 'Sorry, pal, we don't carry that in stock.' But Eustace is way more optimistic than God. And way more lonely than God too."

My personal opinion is that America suffers from a "wussification" of our male youth, and I really enjoyed the frequent exploration of how children today are vastly different from recent generations and the possible causes for that shift. "Not many people can subdue their egos. The talent for submission is especially hard for modern American kids, who are raised in a culture that has taught them from infancy that their every desire is vital and sacred."

Eustace is quite the unique character which is a large part of why this was such an interesting read. At times he is incredibly kind and a huge romantic, which conflicts with his superego and extreme, uncompromising need for control.

I found this to be more enjoyable than Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, with more captivating subject material and an improved writing style. Often times her snark is hilarious and the pacing was consistent. My only complaint was the profanity, particularly her use of G-damn. I am generally not offended by profanity in books, but over 50% of the time Gilbert utilized it (which was quite often), it felt stilted and gratuitous. From the beginning of the book to the end this was continuously noticed, which only made it more annoying because it repeatedly broke the flow of the book, making for a jarring reading experience.



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Favorite Quote: Life goes on, after all, and one must always seek the lesson even through the sorrow.

First Sentence: By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by Elizabeth Gilbert, before her hit Eat, Pray, Love, this compelling story of Eustace Conway is one I won't soon forget. I'm surprised it isn't more well-known considering the popularity of Gilbert and the similar storyline to the outdoor tale of Into The Wild. This story doesn't have a tragic ending like Into The Wild, but there are many parallels in the early lives of Christopher McCandless and Eustace Conway.

Gilbert writes an endearing, witty, humorous, heartfelt, and detailed account of her friend, The Last American Man, Eustace Conway. Eustace was born and raised in North Carolina by a domineering and unloving father and a subservient mother. He found comfort in the outdoors at an early age and learned how to live off the land from lessons from his mother, who was well-versed in nature and survival, and his own trial and error, perseverance, intelligence, and self-education. He left home at 18 and never looked back. Among his many feats, he has hiked the Appalachian Trail without bringing any food or water with him and only harvesting and hunting along the way to feed himself. He also holds the fastest record for crossing the country on horseback. Gilbert met his brother, Judson, while working at a cowboy camp in Montana and the two soon forged a lasting friendship.

Eustace's main goal in life has been to teach the masses how to live off the land, protect nature, detach from mainstream society and return to our roots. He has taught workshops all over the country. He slowly bought 1,000 acres of land near Boone, North Carolina which he named Turtle Island. He's had camps on his land to teach the youth and apprentices to help run and maintain his land, all the while teaching them all he knows. And trust me, he knows everything. From building houses, to gardening, to woodworking, to blacksmithing, to making clothes, to hunting, to weaving baskets, to caring for animals, Eustace does it all. But, just like his father, he is rigid in his temperament and doesn't tolerate anything less than he is capable of. But of course, this is hard for Eustace to see in himself although it is quite clear to those around him.

Gilbert's wonderful storytelling provides interesting history about the American Frontier and those that helped establish it including Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Lewis and Clark. She skillfully weaves their stories into the visions and accomplishments and desires of Eustace, all the while never losing the reader's attention. There are also many laughable, sad, and charming anecdotal stories throughout. Gilbert's greatest feat is not only showing Eustace's tough, hardworking, rugged, mountain man side, but unpeeling his many layers and displaying his vulnerable core. Highly recommend if you like the outdoors, biographies, or really enjoyed Into The Wild. 5 stars!

[Julianne Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew of Eustace Conway before reading this and that was the only reason I read it because I didn't like Eat, Pray, Love. I think this would have been a more successful book about "the last american man" had it been written by Jon Krakauer. Gilbert annoyed me yet again and this book is not really about living a life more like Eustace Conway, it is a book psychoanalyzing his personality, relationship and family issues. Which gets really old, really quick. She tries to argue that Americans are fascinated by the glorified the idea of his life, and then breaks it down into how hard it is, but the whole concept and title of her book is the epitome of that glorified ideal. I am really confused as to how people see this book as encouraging Americans to leave their lazy, consumer lives. Also, no one (at least not this one person) cares about how much Gilbert loves getting drunk with him. Yes, his way of life is very inspiring, but I have that opinion from other information and stories I have heard. This book didn't do him any favors.

[Laila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating biography of a complicated, maddening, admirable man, a man convinced he was going to change the world and help start a revolution of self-reliance and harmony with nature. With each book I read by Gilbert I am more and more impressed with her range. She gets at the heart of an inscrutable man, portrays him both sympathetically and honestly. Highly recommended.

[Rosie Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in a bad mood, wanting to leave for a transcontinental trip and settling somewhere on the Himalayas, then I checked this book and it saved my day. Definitely my favorite. I always love Elizabeth Gilbert's writing, and I'm fascinated by Eustace Conway's lifestyle. Ingenious and intelligent, adventurous and ambitious, living simply and close to nature, he leads a dream life that we all want but scared to follow. I also feel a deep empathy with his characters and ideas of life, strict to himself and to others, tired of the the modern box-shaped society with so much consumption and bad - mannered people, exploring the world with incredible adventures, interested in aboriginal Indians, and having a strong connection with nature and spiritual world. Another plus for outsiders like me, it's interesting to know more about American culture with its pros and cons.

There are only two things that bother me. The first is Eustace's desire to find a soul mate and an eternal love, it's just so naive. He is an extraordinary individual, it's almost impossible to find a woman suit him, and no, there is no such thing called eternal love, why does he long for the unreal? Secondly, his ambition to save the world. It is clear to me that in his attempt to bring America back to a more balanced lifestyle, he loosened his connection with his soul and nature, exhausting from paperwork and advertising, falling into despair with his expectation, and lost his charm. One cannot save the world if he is not content with his life, and living peacefully with oneself without much ego is the best way to live. It's a sad story of a talented man.

Một quyển sách rất hấp dẫn, đúng thể loại tôi thích. Một mặt, tôi luôn yêu thích cách viết của Elizabeth Gilbert, mặt khác, tôi thực sự bị mê hoặc bởi tính cách và cách sống của Eustace Conway. Dẻo dai và mạnh mẽ, thông minh và đầy kỹ năng, nghiêm khắc với chính mình và với những người xung quanh, đầy tham vọng và mơ ước, Eustace là mẫu hình lý tưởng của kiểu người đàn ông khai hoang mở cõi, vốn gần như đã tuyệt chủng trên đời. Anh sống một cuộc đời trong mơ của nhiều người, đi bộ 2000 dặm trên chặng đường Appalachia và ăn những thứ mình bắn và kiếm được trên đường, cỡi ngựa đường trường từ bờ Đông sang bờ Tây nước Mỹ, leo núi ở New Zealand, sống với người Maya ở Guatemala, và xây dựng một nông trại tự cung tự cấp rộng một ngàn mẫu Anh và sống với mối liên kết chặt chẽ với thiên nhiên (tôi cũng đã từng nuôi mộng tưởng sống trong một căn nhà trên sườn núi nào đó cách biệt với thành thị ồn ã).

Một cuộc đời rất tuyệt. Nhưng lại bị phá hủy bởi hai ước mộng không tưởng. Một là khát khao tìm kiếm một người bạn đời tuyệt mĩ và sự hòa hợp tuyệt đối, hai là tham vọng cứu cả thế giới khỏi lối sống tiêu thụ và trở về với thiên nhiên. Đối với tôi, ta không thể cứu cả thế giới nếu không thể sống yên ổn với chính mình, cũng không thể mong đợi một tình yêu hoàn hảo (nhất là với một người có cái tôi quá lớn như Eustace), điều đó hoàn toàn không có thật. Một câu chuyện buồn cho một người đàn ông tài năng.

Một lần nữa tôi lại thất vọng với bản dịch của Nhã Nam. Mang tiếng là một thương hiệu sách làm ăn nghiêm túc và có tiếng tăm lớn trên thị trường, mà Nhã Nam cho ra bản dịch có trên dưới 10 lỗi dịch thuật, chưa kể cách dịch khá khô cứng và kém hấp dẫn, (đây chỉ là một trong số không ít sách dịch bị lỗi mà tôi đã đọc của Nhã Nam). Trong khi những tác phẩm khác đồ sộ hơn nhiều từ các công ty sách khác thì có ít lỗi và được dịch mượt mà hơn nhiều. Ước gì tôi biết một người làm trong đó để góp ý cho họ.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Gilbert's lively, well-rounded portrait of Eustace Conway, but my enjoyment was tempered by one overriding thought: "Boy, that guy is a DICK." This has nothing to do with Gilbert's breezy, funny style. As a matter of fact, in anyone else's hands, I would have filed Conway's story in the "dull, thudding tract" section of my library. It boggles me that a man who is so aware of his natural surroundings, who lives WITH the earth, who conforms himself to the seasons and doesn't expect Nature to yield her supremacy to him, can be such a complete and utter dolt when it comes to relationships with people. His demand for strength, competence, and complete submission to his will (and that applies to both men and women in his life) is straight from the Army. It WORKS in the Army. But the Army has the infrastructure, the personnel, and the resources to tear someone down completely and then build that person up as a fighting machine. The Army attracts people who know that's what is going to happen, and go to their fate willingly (if not happily).

The people who are initially attracted to Conway's lifestyle are the exact opposite. You need to be an individualist to live as Conway does, and individualists don't like to lose their individuality and their autonomy. Expecting accolytes to strip themselves of...well...THEMSELVES, so they can adhere to the rigid doctrine of one man, is a naive expectation. Conway himself wouldn't do it for anyone, and I can't imagine how he could entertain the notion that thousands of people would flock to him for that purpose.

And don't get me started on his criteria for the perfect mate. Of course this woman would need to be strong, and competent, and patient, and savvy. That is logical, and since Conway worships at the altar of logic (or so he says), I can get behind it. But the only reason she needs to be beautiful is because Conway wants a hot chick to screw. And then leave to tend their 13 kids so he can preach the gospel of Conway. And I'll wager he expects her to stay gorgeous and lustful forever, regardless of the fact that she is the one raising the kids and tending the farm when he's gone.

I like it when people follow their dreams. I don't like it when people impose those dreams on others, expect complete obedience, and get all pouty when those people say "Screw you, buddy. If I had joined the Army at least I'd get 3 hots and a cot. You can't even give me that."

Conway has the life he deserves. Surrounded by beauty he can't appreciate, abandoned by people he can't understand. He's still not married, still doesn't have kids. If that doesn't tell him something, he's not listening.

But I really like the book. :^)

[Nadia Nellestein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Gilbert is een kunstenaar. Ze verstaat dit vak, het schrijverschap zo goed dat elk werk van haar de moeite waard is om te lezen. Ook als je niet dol bent op Eat, Pray, Love (haar grootste bestseller) is de kans nog steeds groot dat je één van haar andere boeken wel zult waarderen. Zij verschuilt zich namelijk niet achter een genre. Ze doet geen kunstje. Ze is een kunstenaar.

In De Laatste Man vertelt ze het verhaal van Eustace Conway. Een mountain man (die de Appalachian trail wandelt, op een paard America doorkruist en in een zelfgemaakte kano door Alaska vaart) met een missie, die vanaf z’n zeventiende in een tipi in de Appalachen woont en daar zelfvoorzienend leeft. De man droomt van een reformatie en is ervan overtuigd die te kunnen bewerkstelligen. Hij wil Amerika wakker schudden en reformeren. Niet meer onbewust en doods leven, maar juist dicht bij de natuur en dus ook dicht bij jezelf. Daarom creëerde hij Turtle Island een natuurreservaat waar hij kinderen en volwassenen uitnodigt om dat leven in de natuur te ontdekken, eigen te maken en vooral te omarmen.

Terwijl we het leven van de man met zijn American dream volgen, combineert Gilbert zijn verhaal kundig met verschillende genderstudies, diept ze het thema “mannelijkheid” uit en krijgen we inzicht in de complexiteit van familierelaties en de diepe impact van een pijnlijke en ingewikkelde jeugd. Dit is dan ook niet zomaar een biografie, die is een complex boek, dat verschrikkelijk goed geschreven is en leest als een trein.

[James Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm fairly certain that I could not stand to be in the presence of Eustace Conway. From reading this book and watching videos of his interviews, I would think that he and I would be at odds. His values are skewed from mine and that is the most disappointing aspect of learning about such a man. He takes a fragment of my individualist, libertarian ideals and twists them into a "my way or the highway" way of spreading the propaganda of his legend. But this is not a review of Conway's substantial character flaws. This is a review of the book written by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I'm not sure if the author's approach to this was supposed to be objective reporter (she definitely wasn't that), biased friend, or impassioned disciple. She seemed to be an annoying combination of the second two options. It was hard to take Gilbert's narrative seriously when she was relying heavily on Conway himself for a good portion of the source material.

It was a little ironic that the author mentioned Congressman Davy Crockett and how he wrote an autobiography of great outdoor adventures and daring (conveniently timed with his political campaign). This is about as reliable as the amazing things that Benjamin Franklin said about himself and I couldn't help but realize that Gilbert was doing the same service for Conway. Whether Conway is incapable of writing intelligently or just enjoys having his story told is beyond my ability to discern.

I can say that most of this book was hard to read because it read like fan-girl Gilbert had gotten her dream assignment of writing about one of her personal heroes. The gushiness and obvious high esteem that the author held for Conway made it difficult to believe that I was reading about the real man (rather than the idealicized version). There was a particular passage in the book that described a birthday card to Conway from his dad. It was overly sappy and dramatic and seemed like the author was manufacturing something more meaningful than the actual occurrence. There was another such over-done bit of drama near the very end when Conway was facing a deer or elk and started shouting feelings of love towards the creature. So what?

At any rate, this book was pretty much a bust and that's two strikes against Elizabeth Gilbert. Frankly, I don't intend to give her a chance for strike three because my time is precious to me and I have hundreds of other books on my list to read. The only part of this book that I liked was when Gilbert challenged Conway just to live as he teaches and stop messing with the idea of changing the world. She basically called him out as a fact and he begrudgingly admitted that he had to put on a mountain man act to get the message out. He is a phony and an attention-seeker. Gilbert portrays Conway as a man of action be he goes out of his way to do so as a public spectacle. I don't admire him and I can't respect her admiration of him.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, anyone can tell from reading some of these other reviews that Eustace Conway is a jerk. He just is; there’s no getting around it. I would even go so far as to say he’s a hypocrite. There’s no doubt that this man is talented and hard-working, and has at some point done all the things he has preached to other people about. And there may have been a point in his life in which he had the proper attitude and motivation to change the world, like he claims he wants to, but here’s where the hypocrisy comes in: he can’t change people as a whole if he can’t stand people as a whole. He is stereotypical and cynical, and a bit flighty about what his goals are when it comes to really making them happen.

But there’s another possible side to this. Maybe he’s just become a grumpy old man and dwells too much on the negative experiences he’s had with people who he has attempted to teach his way of life to (I find it hard to believe he has encountered that many idiots without a large number of good workers/environmentalists to balance it out)…. or maybe that’s just the way Elizabeth Gilbert writes it. I can’t say I was fond of her writing at all. It was very informal. I don’t care how close she is to Conway’s family, how hot she thinks his brother is, or how many romantic relationships Conway has had (which got rather redundant and immature – another example of Conway’s bad attitude and perhaps Gilbert’s poor choice of subject matter). And it seemed to me that she was out of place when expressing Conway’s opinions and feeling for him without quoting him. She may be a friend of his, but she didn’t initially approach this biography as a friend’s account of Conway’s life, but as an author out to find the truth about Conway’s life. Therefore I don’t think her assumptions were fitting.

I give this book two stars instead of one because Conway used to have a good message, which was mentioned at some point in the story, and it was at times interesting. As for the rest of the book, I don’t see myself ever picking it up again, and I probably wouldn’t have in the first place had it not been required for a class.

[Carla Baku · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have intended to read this book for years and am so glad I finally took the time to do so. After hearing Eustace Conway on the radio some time ago (This American Life) and seeing him recently on television (Mountain Men on History Channel), I was primed to know more.

The beauty of Elizabeth Gilbert's portrait of Eustace is that she comes from a position of knowing him personally; her love for him is obvious. The depth of her narrative comes from her willingness to explore problematic nuances, to effectively look past Conway's brilliance and see that he is a man, after all, made of clay like the rest of we mere mortals.

If ever a man could be considered larger than life, Eustace Conway fits the bill. That he has accomplished incredible things in his life is indisputable--a 103-day cross-continental trip on horseback being just one of MANY--and Gilbert is wise to use his accomplishments and personal magnetism as her jumping-off place. The first part of the book pulls the reader directly into that stance of awe and inspiration.

Gilbert then uses a myriad of anecdotes from those who have been brought into Eustace's orbit (only to be sent spinning off in hurt, awe, disillusionment, gratitude, anger, love) in order to show the painful and sometimes dark side of his brilliance. That Eustace himself struggles so mightily with his own foibles only serves to humanize him more profoundly. This is a man who cannot, it seems, keep from holding everyone on earth--especially himself--up to the highest standards imaginable. One is left to wonder what such a world would look like, ultimately: a paradise of connection with the natural world, or a haunted hell of unrealistic expectations.

It is a lightning-quick read that you will not soon forget.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

To review the book or the man? It is so hard with biographies.
Let us start with the man- there are so many, SO MANY things that we could all learn from Eustace Conway. This man lives primally but intelligently, he challenges our history and our definitions of pioneers and manliness in a modern day where we sit on a couch, ignorant of the weather, and revoking ‘man cards’ when a guy can’t chug a shitty beer quickly enough. There is a pervasive nostalgia throughout the book, brought forth by Eustace, in all the self-defining skills and adventures that we have lost as nation. We wage a war against comfort now, trying to move out of our comfort-zones, go camping, push harder, etc., when we used to wage a war for survival. Its not all bad, but its definitely not all good either. I do like that I do not have to spend every waking moment in a 24 hour cycle worrying about food, real, near-starvation worry. I am also glad that I run very little risk of freezing to death in my own home during the winter since we can’t all live in the South. I do hunt though, and garden, because I think it’s important to have control over my food, its production, and knowledge of the cycles of the land around me. I want to become more involved in canning and preserving, not because I worry that doomsday is coming, but so I can appreciate history, the work and labor of individuals that ultimately established the community I live in, to learn resourcefulness, frugality, to end wastefulness and to become thoughtful of my food. There are so many methods we could learn from Eustace how to minimize in healthy ways for ourselves and our environment. We could learn to be connected again to the earth, and to each other, in ways that I am starting to think are becoming ever-more important as the structures we currently have built don’t seem to me to be the kind that last for generations. Everywhere about me I see farm houses that were built in the 1880s, and while they may be rough and weather-beaten, they still stand solid as the day they were built, whereas, I have zero doubt that if I left my nice, modern house with the same neglect it would be toppled in a decade or two- and so I feel like I drive past a very present, very obvious metaphor for American culture every day.

Then again, Eustace is a man troubled in relationships and emotions. After a conflicting, traumatic childhood, he seems incapable of maintaining meaningful relationships with people, and god forbid, you enter into a relationship with him where he is in a paternal/guiding role. It was apparent, and inevitable in every relationship featured in the book that eventually his charisma will wear thin, and then you are left with a man that may mean well, but is a tyrant, unwilling to compromise. It may even be that he is completely correct in every decision that he makes, but his unwillingness to let others learn from mistakes, ignores his own history in the woods, the trials and errors that he encountered. I would love to learn from Eustace Conway, but in short doses. We must accept that he has his flaws because like the rest of us, he is still human. In the end, I think its good that men like him are in the world. We need them, as we always need people who are willing and capable of living separately to remind us that we can, and that there is hope and salvation in diversity and adversity.

Now the book review- Oh Gilbert. Agh. You are just another author in a line of authors that frustrated me in 2015. You are capable of such beautiful sentiment, real introspection, and wonderful writing. Like the quote below which is one of my favorite passages:

Briefly, the history of America goes like this: there was a frontier, and then there was no longer a frontier. It all happened rather quickly. There were Indians, then explorers, then settlers, then towns, then cities. Nobody was really paying attention until the moment the wilderness was officially tamed, at which point everybody wanted it back. Within the general spasm of nostalgia that ensued (Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Frederic Remington's cowboy paintings) there came a very specific cultural panic, rooted in the question What will become of our boys?

The problem was that, while the classic European coming-of-age story generally featured a provincial boy who moved to the city and was transformed into a refined gentleman, the American tradition had evolved into the opposite. The American boy came of age by leaving civilization and striking out toward the hills. There, he shed his cosmopolitan manners and became a robust and proficient man. Not a gentleman, mind you, but a man.

But then she inserts herself, unattractively, into the book, usually to chastise the subject about the way he behaved on some past occasion. It is a repetitive: “Eustace, say it isn’t so!” and it’s boring, and it doesn’t seem to fit either the role of a biographer, or the tone of the book. It almost felt vapid, like Gilbert couldn’t handle the idea that we might be thinking more of Eustace than her, and as though she HAD to remind us that without her great friendship and love of adventure herself, we wouldn’t even have this story. That’s maybe true- Eustace seems like a smart enough businessman that he eventually would have gotten his story out, but maybe not, and I am thankful that Gilbert wrote this book, I just wish she hadn’t kept reminding me that SHE wrote it. It was the same sort of problems that I had with Eat, Pray, Love, but on a smaller scale.



*** full disclosure, this book absolutely did make me want to try and set up a teepee in my backyard and try it out at various points of the year.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that stir up strong opinions and heated controversy. Eustace Conway, the back-to-nature mountain man of the title, is someone you can see as a living American myth or a nut case. The author's portrait of him, full of ironies right from the title onward, lends itself to either point of view. And depending on how the book is read, you can see either admiration or skepticism in what she says about Conway.

Or you can see subject and author in all of these ways which, as I understand the book, is what the author intends. Eustace Conway is full of contradictions. He's both immensely appealing and stridently off-putting. A rigorous thinker, naturalist, and walking whole-earth-catalog, he is still a babe in the woods in knowing how to negotiate just about any kind of relationship with another human being - including the many, many young women he attracts. By the author's account, few men so lucky in bed have been so unlucky in love.

For every amateur psychologist the author provides more than enough back-story to puzzle over Conway's behavior. There's a tyrant father who heaps withering scorn on his son, starting at the age of two. And there's his great-outdoors-loving mother, who rescues him from his father by encouraging his unsupervised forays into the woods. By the time he is out of high school, he's already living in a teepee, beading his own moccasins, killing game for food, skinning animals, and hiking the entire Appalachian Trail wearing nothing more than two bandanas, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, his epic journeys on foot and on horseback and his pioneering in the North Carolina backcountry are mythic Americana. While our first reaction to all this may be admiration, Gilbert writes in a wisecracking tone that heightens the ironies and more than once made me laugh out loud. And she reminds us that if there's anyone to fault, it's not Conway but the gullibly romantic Americans who believe literally in their own national mythology and heroes. Looking back to Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, for instance, she reveals that they were in fact no different. Like Conway, they were supporters of the myths and legends that grew up around them and good old-fashioned American entrepreneurs and self-promoters.

Anyway, there's much to enjoy in this book. And it's full of surprises - right up to the last pages, as Gilbert tells a poignant story of how Conway touched the life of a troubled teenager who spent a week with him in the woods building a fence. And the author's closing image captures the spirit of the entire book - Conway getting out of his truck and shouting, "I love you!" at a buck deer that refuses to move off the road. The image is moving, ridiculous, or both; take your pick.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, as I noted in my progress report, this book is way too much about Elizabeth Gilbert. While Eustace Conway is an interesting, unique character, Gilbert's rendition of the man, his philosophy and life story is too filled with her personal opinion and prejudices. I find it difficult to believe that this book was a National Book Award finalist. I feel as if on some level, Mr. Conway was used.

[Raro de Concurso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuando vi en la portada del libro la foto de Eustace Conway se me encendió una bombilla en la cabeza. Pero si éste es el Eustace Conway que conozco de Mountain Men de Dmax (un programa de telerrealidad donde se sigue la vida diaria de varios personajes que viven medio aislados en la naturaleza). En el programa Eustace ya es un señor que ronda los 60 años, más parecido al abuelo de Heidi que al joven asalvajado del libro. Y su carácter parece bonachón y tranquilo, y bastante sentimental (sobre todo cuando su amigo Preston se pone enfermo y él le cuida tiérnamente en lo que yo supuse una relación sentimental entre ambos - pero según el libro, no, ni de lejos -).

El caso es que esta novela es su historia. Y vaya historia. El pobre Eustace pilló por vía materna (de su abuelo) y paterna (de su progenitor), una gran inteligencia (en este caso aplicada a habilidades manuales, y de planificación, cálculo y observación), pero también un carácter obsesivo, perfeccionista, ególatra e individualista.
Éso le lleva a ser capaz de echarse al monte y sobrevivir de lo que caza o recolecta hasta conseguir comprar unas tierras casi vírgenes en Carolina del Norte para montarse su edén particular. Una granja primitiva que también es campamento escuela de verano, donde intenta sacar a la juventud americana de su aborregamiento urbanita, y que vuelvan a sus orígenes.
El problema es que Eustace, a pesar de ser una eminencia en la gestión de recursos, como si viviese en el S.XVIII, y tener unas habilidades fuera de lo común para sobrevivir con el trabajo de sus propias manos, también es un jefe totalmente insufrible.
La tasa de abandonos de los becarios que van a su granja a vivir de esa forma ronda el 90%. Los exprime física y psicológicamente de tal forma que acaban saliendo por patas totalmente rotos. Lo mismo puede decirse de sus numerosas relaciones sentimentales. A pesar de su magnetismo, las novias acaban abandonándole una detrás de otra. Vamos, que su inteligencia emocional ni se la ve ni se la espera.
La autora se hace amiga de Eustace, y yo creo que también cae en sus redes, pero si así es, lo disimula. En cualquier caso se involucra en su vida en cierta manera y se aprecia cierta subjetividad en su relato. Bueno, tampoco es determinante para disfrutar la historia.
El libro, en la versión original, se publicó en 2002, por lo que no llega a contar la parte televisiva. Pero está claro que 15 años después de la finalización del libro, Eustace siguió el consejo de la autora: busca una forma de demostrar a la gente cómo puede vivir en pleno contacto con la naturaleza, pero hazlo sin tener que convivir con nadie. A tu manera, en solitario. Tal vez así consigas ser feliz.

Y por hoy ya es suficiente. Es hora del almuerzo y la zarigüeya que tengo en el puchero me está llamando.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful story about the life (so far) of the fascinating yet infuriating Eustace Conway. I loved Gilbert's slow pace as she takes her time to tell us Eustace's story, based on her meticulous, journalistic, and obviously joyful research. Eustace is a mountain man and environmentalist, a naturalist educator, a hunter/gatherer/farmer/horseman. He lived in a teepee for years. He Dumpster-dives for supermarkets' discarded produce and meats, yet owns 1,000 acres of North Carolina land. While Gilbert enthralls us with his adventures, there are also Eustace's dark sides, his stubbornness, his painful struggles with relationships, and his despair of a modern world of "boxes" in opposition to the natural world's "circles." I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading about Eustace Conway.

[Mary Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here I go again. I know i should be more 'forgiving' with authors, but I really like good books and books that are well written, when they aren't written well, I have to move on. I didn't like "Eat, Pray, Love" as one person here pointed out so eloquently; she writes endlessly enamored with her voice and herself.

Biographies, regardless auto or otherwise, should give us a glimpse into the person's life. The flavor of the book should represent the person being written about, not the author, can be funny, insightful and give us reasons to either like the person we're reading about, or at least give us to wonder about the person. This book does not do either.

The tone of the book is Julia Robert's playing Elizabeth Gilbert in the movie version of "Eat, Pray, Love." The words themselves sound like Julia Robert, especially "Davy Fucken-Crocket", which was funny maybe the first time mentioned, get's old very, very fast.

The ability to actually give a picture to her readers never happens. You don't see jack, what you read and understand is HER take on Eustace Conway. Oh and by the way, don't get hooked up in the bad writing style or you'll go nuts. Example, second paragraph:

"This move occurred in 1977, by the way. Which was the same year as Star Wars was released." Last time I checked this would be considered an awkward sentence structure.

Perhaps best to leave the writing style alone and just concentrated on how this book leaves you wondering, why are we celebrating a man who insists on abusing other's if they do not fit up to his exacting standards (that are beyond normal expectations) and making one of his lovers leave the teepee to dig up squirrel remains at 11pm because he wanted to 'teach her a lesson' about how squirrel meat 'should be cooked'….or his fixation on 'being right at all costs', or him pushing his brother and horses to the point of breaking on a nationwide sprint across the US, because he wants to "prove something".

Maybe this might be a sign of Asperger's Syndrome, but in the end he just comes off as a jerk. In any case, even if he is on the autistic spectrum, his behavior still is not excusable, nor his impossible demands on staff, friends, family and mates shows him to be someone who needs very serious counseling (to deal with his father issues, his learned abusive treatment towards others, and temper).



I cannot recommend this to others as a 'good book' nor as a interesting armchair visit into living wild, trekking the AT (read David Brill's book, you'll thank me, if you love the AT and AT stories: "As Far As The Eye Can See: Reflections Of An Appalachian Trail Hiker", David Brill ) or about someone attempting to get off the grid because they feel so much affinity with nature, they want a better life. If you read almost any of the Appalachian Trail books that are written by the person's who have traveled the AT, you will quickly see the difference between this book and those with empathy towards nature and people.

In the end, if the 'over zealous' drooling of Elizabeth Gilbert over her subject (she comes off as someone who is simply writing a 'fan book', and that is what this book really accomplishes), doesn't give you a coma saccharine, his endless berating of everyone (literally) and objectifying his potential lovers may well leave you wondering, what are we celebrating here?

The best description of abuse: demanding services of others, carping until they meet your demands, with an inability to forgive self or others, and the need to settle 'things' by either force or making emotional or verbal putdowns that make other's feel worthless.

For me, this book was neither insightful on why folks want to walk either the AT, why they would want to be off the grid, or as one of our friends put it: "he sounds like someone who wants to be a cult leader." And that my friends, is where I part from this book, knowing there are better books out there for my time and energy.

[Tom Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eustace Conway is inspirational, radical, tough, highly skilled, committed, full of heart, forward-thinking.

Eustace Conway is also impatient, controlling, narcissistic, angry, stubborn, tyrannical, backward-thinking.

Elizabeth Gilbert's profile of her friend is well balanced and the structure of the book makes you feel like you have been through the full range of emotions that his many followers and lovers have. He is initially beguiling, intoxicating even. His enthusiasm, his radical ideas and his sheer passion for a back-to-the-land existence is utterly enthralling. But the more you get to know Eustace, the more troubling his personality becomes.

Eustace Conway is no suburban hippie. He's a stubborn, forceful man who doesn't believe in other people. He believes only in himself. He has no time for the ideas of other because he knows his own are all correct. He crushes most of the people he meets. Kills their spirit and along with it his own.

He set out to change the world but, certainly by the end of this book, he seemed to have lost his way. Perhaps that's the frustration of young idealism giving way to the realities of life. Perhaps something darker.

Either way, it's a captivating story.

This is a perfectly pitched, insightful glimpse at a complex, sometimes unlikeable, but ultimately inspiring figure.