I was worried this might be a little heavy going, and at times it felt a little slow; but Solnit has a knack of tying in the everyday and incidental to relate the themes back to the present. There are enough stories to balance out the explanations & theories It is a brilliant book, it explained to me the things I felt about walking but couldn't quite put my finger on, or put into words. Reasons why we walk; for recreation, to see, to think or to travel. What walking does to us, shapes the way we think and the rhythms we think in. As well as the spaces we walk in and how they came about. The book was very centred on an American and British history of walking, it would have been good to open up the conversation to other cultures. Though I'm not sure you could fit the whole world's experience of walking into 300 pages.
There were a couple of chapters I didn't necessarily agree with and I felt she was generalising in some places. In one chapter Solnit was talking of the 'Landed gentry' blocking access to footpaths and rights of way and the poor trying to get access, and I would argue things aren't as clear cut as that. Certainly in my experience it is some ordinary farmers (who certainly aren't rich or 'gentry', though they may be landed) who restrict, block or verbally assault those walking on footpaths. Later there is a whole chapter on the death of walking, centred around the suburbia of America. It seems insane that anyone would suggest people will stop walking, in British suburbia there's usually a pub, corner shop & chippy, people walk to these and walk their dogs, they move to suburbia to be nearer the country and the outside spaces and footpaths it offers; not to be locked up in their houses, as Solnit seems to suggest the Americans do.
However I concede that both these 'flaws' are down to the differences in my and Solnit's personal experiences, and perhaps in a book charting the history of walking you have to consider the future of it. A brilliantly written and explained chapter on walking as art redeemed the book for me. The ideas behind and reasons for the artworks were beautifully explained and that chapter should be given to anyone who has ever scorned a piece of contemporary art.
Wanderlust is certainly worth the read, Solnit both informs & provokes conversation, the best sort of a history book.
