Andrea Hejlskov

I don't know what to think about this book. On the one hand, the author is just short of unbearable on the negative attitude scale. Absolute darkness, nothing is good, everything is hopeless, her husband is an asshole (though really, he does seem like an asshole). On the other hand, the book makes for compelling reading, in no small part because of her struggle to make sense of her own horrid attitude.

When I step back and think about it, there seems to me to be a need on the author's part to crush into dust any illusions people might have about it being nice to live in the wilderness. She doesn't want to come off as some blissed-out hippie who has bought into the dream, she wants to prove that she is better than that by focusing only on the hardships, the failures, the fights. Of which there are plenty.

I want to note that as soon as they move into the woods, this modern family immediately reverts to gender stereotypes. He works on building the cabin (the heroic, cool project) while she is in charge of the cooking, cleaning, and watching the children (invisible work, only noticed when not done). Why is that, I wonder. She is clearly unhappy about it, and bitches to the reader about it continuously. When she FINALLY talks to her husband about it, he blows her off and that's the end of it. Why is it that this gendered regression happens once they leave society and set off on their own? I find it very disturbing.… (meer)

3.75 stars

This Danish author and her husband decided to take their family and live off the grid in the forest in Sweden for one year. Though it doesn’t say it in the book, the back cover says it has turned into six years. This included four children – 15-year old twins, an 11-year old, and a something(11?)-month old.

I love the idea of it, of anyone who is able to do this. It was really hard (no surprise, really). They had some help from another guy who’d done it once before and decided to “join” them (a little ways away) and do it again. Others came by, as well, as the author did write a blog, so people knew what they were doing (though she didn’t mention it often, nor mention how she was posting, how often, etc – though eventually she did mention having a generator that was rarely used; it died in the fall, anyway). Boy, those two sure did have some anger issues, though. There was a lot of fighting between them. I imagine it was incredibly stressful, but I certainly didn’t expect all the anger. The author did address this later in the book – that she had focused more on the conflict and not the things they enjoyed.… (meer)

I started reading this book March 5/20. As of April 16/20, I stopped reading at page 86 as it no longer interests me. I found the start very disjointed and by page 27 lost track of the characters. Had to search out the family members. Dad suffers from clinical depression, as do I. Mum has been hospitalized for it. Four children ages 15, 14, 10 and 9 months. Seems drastic to go back to living in the wilderness without any thought as to how to do it. The story line is very drawn out, so I became bored with it. Not a fan of living in the outdoors. I camped with my wife, her idea, for 15 years because I loved her but not because I wanted too. I was a reluctant participant. This was only for two weeks in August at a Provincial Park. We had access to drinking water, washrooms, and showers. Their story just wasn’t interesting to me.… (meer)