[at-l] "WALKING HOME"

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

As some of you know, I collect and read AT books, especially journals of 
thru-hikes.  Recently I have been recommending WALKING HOME and yesterday I 
received an off-list inquiry regarding the year that Amazin' Grace's book 
is about.  The inquirer thought he may have hiked the same year and met her.

I could not recall a year being mentioned (dates are month and day only) so 
I scanned the book to see if I could find a year.  Failing to find a year I 
replied with a list of trail names, reasoning that if they had hiked the 
same year and met they would have known some of the same people.  Then this 
morning as I looked more closely at the book I noticed a disclaimer on the 
copyright page that I had not seen before (I don't always read the 
copyright page) which prompted me to send the following addendum to the 
off-list inquiry:

>Upon further review of the book I found a notice on the copyright page 
>that I had not seen earlier:
>"Although the events described in this book are true, in order to protect 
>the privacy of the people involved, names and identifying characteristics 
>have been changed.  The trail names used in the book are typical, but they 
>are not those of actual hikers encountered by the author.  Any resemblance 
>between names and identifying characteristics used in this book and those 
>of actual people -on or off the trail- is unintentional and purely 
>coincidental."
>
>In light of that disclaimer, I'm sure the list of trail names I forwarded 
>will be of no use in determining whether the author hiked the AT during 
>the same year that you did.  My apologies for not realizing sooner that 
>this was not a strictly factual journal of an attempted thru-hike.

Prior to my discovery of the disclaimer I took the book to be factual 
account of a thru-hike attempt.  My only qualms about the book involved 
what I felt was an unnecessarily detailed description of the sexual 
peculiarity of a pre-hike S.O.  I can see why the author might have felt 
compelled to "change the name to protect the innocent" in that case, but I 
find it disturbing that she chose to fictionalize *everyone* in the 
book.  Even Bill Bryson, whose WALK IN THE WOODS is widely regarded as 
largely fictional did not include such a disclaimer.  In fact, 
he  dedicated the book to Katz, the character that most readers regard as 
being fictional.

In light of the above I withdraw my recommendation of WALKING HOME as a 
factual account of a thru-hike attempt.  This does not mean that it isn't a 
well written book or that it is not a worth while read but I no longer see 
it fitting into the thru-hiker's journal genre.  I'm sorry if I mislead 
anyone with my recommendation.  I should have seen the disclaimer sooner.

sAunTerer (who will always read copyright pages in the future)