The Stranger in the Woods

[Potential spoilers]
This book made me stop to think about different people. Some people really just want to be alone and left alone. Is that a default because it's different from what we think is “normal” behavior? Is it participating in society? Is that a requirement for life? If Chris had the means, would he have been more like a hunter, gathering his own food, instead of having to steal it? I think about if things had turned out differently for him. Is there a way that he could have “checked out” and stayed checked out, without having to commit the crimes that he did in order to stay that way.

I'd have been with the group of people who thought that he should not have been prosecuted. If there had been a way to allow him to go back to his “camp”, keep him supplied with all he needed (his family?) and allow him the privacy, and seclusion that he wanted, I would have really liked for that to happen for him.

Reading all this has intrigued me, and has set me to want to read more about him. Although, I don't think is probably much more. I think he gave this author all that he could/would give. Maybe in the end, his church lady friend would have had more. But I don't think she would have been “willing” to share. At least not by indications we received as readers.

It's just fascinating. Makes one think.