A gentleman by the name of Bruce Kuntz posted the following on Ms. Strayed's Facebook page:
You should be able to click this to see a larger version.
He also links to this blog which raises the same issue.
To summarize, in the chapter "The Lou out of Lou" Cheryl accepts a ride from a woman just after she met the (mythical) man who interviewed her for "Hobo Times." In the backseat of the car is a guy named "Spider" who's described at 40ish, dark hair worn in a braid, and wears a black leather vest with a red bandana. I think Cheryl was imagining Danny Trejo when she wrote this scene, but who knows. Spider goes on to tell her how he had been reading about "animals" awhile back and came across a story about an ape who had learned to draw.
I won't bother recounting all the details of the story, you can see them for yourself on either the FB post above or the link to the blog.
The key thing here is that later on in Wild, Cheryl just coincidentally reads Nabokov's Lolita. In the afterward section of the book, which is contained within the American version, which Strayed read, is the exact same anecdote.
You can read Cheryl's response to her being questioned about it above. At best, she merged something she had read in the book, with something that happened to her in reality. (Okay okay, we are going on the assumption she actually got a ride from Lou and met Spider. I know this is stretching your ability to suspend disbelief). At worst...well, what IS the worst case? She made the whole damn thing up. The former supports hypothesis #2 and the latter supports hypothesis #1. Which is worse?
And look how unapologetic she is in her response. Eh, so what if I just mistakenly thought something I read actually happened? Tee hee! Memory is tricky and stuff! Hee! That's why they call it a memoir! Giggle! Smiley!
As I sit here thinking, it occurs to me that Cheryl making the entire story up actually also supports hypothesis #2 as it fits right in with the idea she is suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. She doesn't think anyone is smart enough to figure out what she did and that she can just smiley-face it away.
Goodness gracious. The deeper I go, the scarier this rabbit hole gets.
By the way, I've just learned that I have been blocked from commenting on Strayed's Facebook page. Not exactly sure what that accomplished. If I really wanted to I could just create another FB page, like she did. Ginger Nile? How many alternate personalities does this woman have? So far we are up to three counting "Sugar". It's interesting because I only commented twice on her page and that was a few days ago. She only blocked me a few hours ago, suggesting that she's been poking around Califohioan's Blog or somehow found her way here. It's funny too watching her post multiple articles in an attempt to "push down" the post where she was getting questioned. Ah well.
Do you know what the great thing about truth is? You never have to apologize for it.
