Customer Reviews

Pacific Dream

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A number of years back I read Trail Ways, Path Wise, which I completely enjoyed. When I found out about Pacific Dream, I had to read it. I really felt like I had done the Hike with John, and the best part was that I never even got a blister! In this book John discussed his difficult relationship and exposed his inner thoughts and emotions with such candor and humor. Everything about the book was crystal clear; from his descriptions of the scenery surrounding him to his many thoughts and revelations. It really was not only an adventure book, it was also a love story which leaves you wondering about his future.

This book is for the rest of us. Okay, so we can't walk across America. We can still feel it, see it, smell it, understand it. That's what this journal, written as simply and powerfully as any literary stylist might. The writer is flawed but so completely honest about himself that we can't help but like him. And we know we can trust him too, and that is what makes this narrative so enthralling. I walked the Pacific Crest Trail with John when I read this, and all I missed out on were the stress fractures. Get it in ebook for $2.99.

This was good adventure writing that I greatly enjoyed - the author tells a fine story and bravely laid out his difficult personal struggles he was facing in his life and marriage at the time in his life when he hiked the PCT. The description of the mental and physical challenges of thru-hiking were excellent.

However, I didn't rate the book higher because I was seriously distracted by what I can only call sloppy editing.

First was there were many misspelled words throughout the text (maybe this was just in the Kindle edition?). Proper names were often misspelled - "Senora pass" should be "Sonora pass", "Monmouth" should have been "Mammoth" to name just a couple of examples. Perhaps an automatic spell checker was the only typographical editing done?

A big part of this genre is description of what you see and learn about the places you visit on your adventure and in this I was also annoyed by scientific inaccuracies scattered throughout. For example: the author claims that the rain shadow effect is caused by high pressure at high elevation. I'm sure the author knows from personal experience that air pressure is lower at high elevation!

Apparently most people are not as bothered by this kind of thing as me (none of the other reviewers mention this), so hopefully you can just enjoy the story for itself.

Thumbs up to the author; thumbs down to the publisher.

What a delightfully written book about love and a hike from Mexico to Canada. John Illig is brutally honest about his emotions. The reader can easily relate to his thoughts. This very articulate book was one of these "can't put down" books. I've ordered his other two books. Can't wait.

This is a wonderful adventure account of a walk from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific trail. But it is much more. It is also a tender love story, and the difficult search of a sensitive soul for personal peace and tranquility that he hopes to find in the wilderness..

It is rare to read a memoir of a great adventure where the author delves both into the action and into his emotions. This is like that. The writing is effortless as only the best writing can be. It's like glass through which we see and feel another life, another soul.
And, like the best memoirs, it is honest, frank and true.

Pacific Dream is a very pleasant, stimulating, enticing and thrilling adventurous narration of a well prepared 2000-mile walk from Mexico to the High Sierras and on to Canada. Though I found the beginning somewhat philosophically long, the author achieved for me what a good travel writer does: he successfully managed to take me as his companion throughout his long journey by reading his account with great interest and enjoyment. It is truly good writing that produces good read!

This is the second of John Illig's three hiking books that I have read and it shows quite clearly how tough the Pacific Crest Trail really is to finish in one season. For that accomplishment, Illig deserves commendations, but he also should be applauded for an engaging book. Illig makes some questionable decisions on his journey, namely beginning with his new wife Cristina who also is a distance-hiking novice. Because of this, the two suffer physically and emotionally for the first 800 miles until injuries force her to quit. It was somewhat annoying that Illig spends much of the rest of the book lamenting his separation from his wife and searching for pay phones to contact her but also insisting on continuing instead for going home. Still his story is told in an interesting manner and is suggested for anyone who likes hiking narratives. Toward the end of the book, Illig comes to terms with some of his personal demons and this makes him more than just another hiker jotting down the story of his hike.