America, like Bonnie Tyler, needs a hero. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer." I - in other words - am your answer. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. I don't know," he mused the next morning. "Maybe I should just marry some educated woman from the city." I felt as if I'd stepped into an eighteenth-century Quaker household. I felt as if I'd brought a bad smell in with me. I felt that I reeked of the stupidest features of modern American society (diet dog food, beepers for children), and I felt tragically incompetent. (I don't work the land. I don't make venison stew.) He needs a woman who can work right up to the day her baby is born," Nathan embellished. "And who can start again immediately the next day." 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.

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. 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. 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: 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).

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During this time, Little Eustace found nature. The boy became a fixture at the Scheile Museum of Natural History and spent every waking moment, when he wasn't in church or school, in the woods behind the Conway house.

When Conway was in his early 20s, he decided to live with the most primitive people he could find and flew to Guatemala. These types of experiences fulfilled Conway in a way no others could. 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, a panic rooted in the question, What will become of our boys? 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.Living in the woods also means that Eustace experiences a degree of cultural isolation that most of us could not fathom. 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.