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Why does the allure of the
frontier still attract American men to the wilderness in search
of themselves? What is lost when these men turn their backs on
civilization, and what is gained? In her new book, acclaimed
journalist and novelist Elizabeth Gilbert offers a fresh
examination of contemporary American male identity and what
pushes young men to seek extreme wilderness experience in search
of their own greatness.
In The Last American Man,
Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway,
who left his comfortable suburban home at the age of seventeen
to move into the
Appalachian Mountains, where for the last twenty years he has
lived, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he
trapped, and living off the land. A charismatic and romantic
figure, both brilliant and tormented, brave and contradictory,
restless and ambitious, Conway has always seen himself as a
"Man of Destiny" whose goal is to convince modern Americans to
give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back
to nature. Gilbert tells of Eustace's crusade and his
extraordinary wilderness adventures, including his 2000-mile
hike down the Appalachian Trail (surviving almost exclusively on
what he could hunt and gather along the way) and his legendary
journey across America on horseback.
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To Elizabeth Gilbert, Eustace 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 that we feel
our men should be, but rarely are. From his example, she
delivers an intriguing look at the archetypal American man
and—from the point of view of a contemporary woman—refracts
masculine American identity in all its conflicting elements of
inventiveness, narcissism, isolation, and intimacy.
The Last
American Man is an unforgettable adventure story about a truly
epic, but thoroughly modern, American hero. |
