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Halflives: Reconciling Work and Wildness
As a member of a prominent Salt Lake City family and a direct descendant of Mormon pioneer Brigham Young, Brooke Williams was born into a carefully scripted life. He would study hard, be involved with his church and community, and follow in the footsteps of three previous generations to work in the family plumbing-supply business. And that is what he did.Yet despite his business success, Williams was not satisfied. His deep and abiding love of the outdoors and insatiable desire to experience wild nature made living the life that was expected of him an ongoing struggle. He found himself escaping at every opportunity into wildness, deliberately seeking risky ski routes and long, lonely runs. He realized he was drowning emotionally, unable to bring his "halflives" together, and growing increasingly miserable as the gap between his two worlds expanded. In "Halflives," Brooke Williams presents the engrossing story of his personal journey in balancing the expectations of family and society, and the needs and desires of his heart. In witty, poignant prose, he tells how he came to free himself from the life he was expected to live. Williams comes to realize he is not alone in this struggle, and he identifies a balance we all must strike between our cultural obligations and the strong pull toward wildness that our evolutionary heritage exerts on the human psyche. As he says, "If we survive as a species, it will have nothing to do with what we've invented, developed or manufactured, but everything to do with what we know in our deep cores about being good mammals. Like grizzly bears, slime molds, mosquitoes, and hawks, we have not been genetically manipulated, and we are still wild creatures. Weneed to act more that way.
197 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 13, 2025
Food for thought
November 18, 2014
A lovely book that ruminates on the tension between living in modern society and living "wild", in a manner better fitting our ancient rhythms.
A descendant of Brigham Young and a Salt Lake City business man, Williams broke with tradition in a courageous effort to reconcile his "half-lives"--one half being the expectations, obligations, and responsibilities foisted upon him by society and faith, and the other half being his desire to live a more natural, wild, and unfettered existence. He traded a high-salaried, corporate job for...nothing--at least at first, and HALFLIVES chronicles that transition.
The reader gets the sense of a wild, but benign beast within the author. He runs at night because "darkness is its own wilderness." But this beast is also sophisticated, thoughtful, observing that "most of our stresses have recently been added to our lives," and wonders whether seeing this life as a means to some other end might invite disregard and abuse.
Williams examines our ideas of civilized living--the expectations of society, faith, peers--and juxtaposes them to his own urges to be outdoors, in weather, in the wilds, near danger, nearer the pulse of ultimate things. He taps into primeval ties that beat within us, but which we tend to ignore in our modern culture. He wonders if we're evolving in the best direction, if what we fill our lives with within the created parameters of civilized life is that which will make us content, happy, and at peace with our natural rhythms and needs. He would like to clear the haze from before our eyes, as he has cleared his own. While striking variations on a theme in its final examinations and conclusions, this book offers a unique angle as it presents a modern and personal perspective on variations on themes worthy of Thoreau, Quammen, and Lopez.
The insight in this book is compelling, and the humor is fresh (a former bathroom supply industrialist, he names each bathroom fixture as it is destroyed in an action scene as Arnold Schwarzenegger fights bad guys in "True Lies"). Williams questions, compares, and ultimately reconciles the relationships between the natural, wild, ever-diminishing us, and that which we have contrived in the guise of civilization.
A descendant of Brigham Young and a Salt Lake City business man, Williams broke with tradition in a courageous effort to reconcile his "half-lives"--one half being the expectations, obligations, and responsibilities foisted upon him by society and faith, and the other half being his desire to live a more natural, wild, and unfettered existence. He traded a high-salaried, corporate job for...nothing--at least at first, and HALFLIVES chronicles that transition.
The reader gets the sense of a wild, but benign beast within the author. He runs at night because "darkness is its own wilderness." But this beast is also sophisticated, thoughtful, observing that "most of our stresses have recently been added to our lives," and wonders whether seeing this life as a means to some other end might invite disregard and abuse.
Williams examines our ideas of civilized living--the expectations of society, faith, peers--and juxtaposes them to his own urges to be outdoors, in weather, in the wilds, near danger, nearer the pulse of ultimate things. He taps into primeval ties that beat within us, but which we tend to ignore in our modern culture. He wonders if we're evolving in the best direction, if what we fill our lives with within the created parameters of civilized life is that which will make us content, happy, and at peace with our natural rhythms and needs. He would like to clear the haze from before our eyes, as he has cleared his own. While striking variations on a theme in its final examinations and conclusions, this book offers a unique angle as it presents a modern and personal perspective on variations on themes worthy of Thoreau, Quammen, and Lopez.
The insight in this book is compelling, and the humor is fresh (a former bathroom supply industrialist, he names each bathroom fixture as it is destroyed in an action scene as Arnold Schwarzenegger fights bad guys in "True Lies"). Williams questions, compares, and ultimately reconciles the relationships between the natural, wild, ever-diminishing us, and that which we have contrived in the guise of civilization.
February 11, 2011
This was a solid book. It wasn't extra-amazing, but it was an engaging, easy ready. It chronicles Williams' journey to find peace in his life. It was well written and very vivid. I thought I would identify with it more since I am also trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I never did identify with him, but I could appreciate what he was struggling with. In the end it was a thoughtful read about reconciling our passions with the need to work.
November 20, 2013
Interesting read...memoir like, adventure like & a touch of spiritual (NOT religious.). Kept my interests, only diss sprinted that it didn't include any suggestions and how you yourself can reconcile work & wildness.
March 16, 2008
This is a really enjoyable book about Williams transition from living the life he was supposed to live to living the life he wants to live. It is inspiring and beautiful.
May 15, 2008
Fantastic perspective on life.
August 5, 2008
TTW's husband Brooke muses about how to combine work with a love of the outdoors.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews