I was very excited to receive the book because I love reading any book about Alaska. I had my Alaska Gazeteer map close by so I could see where he was going. I read the jacket and saw that he travelled 400 miles in the Alaska wilderness alone. I thought the book was going to be about self discovery. I read it in one sitting in 3 hours because I could not put it down. His use of prose and overall language structure kept me reading when I really wanted to throw the book down when he went on his schizophrenic LSD trips. I like the message about having to continually renew the fire in your heart, otherwise it will grow stone cold and black. I disliked the torture he put his girlfriend through. The book is classified as fiction. I think it is the personal experience of Rich Shapero. I don't think he dressed up as a Ram in real life in the wilderness. The ram was a metaphor, but he definitely was tripping on LSD in the woods by himself. I found it strange that I was reading a book about him writing the same book I was reading. I laughed out loud when Doug called Ransom "Insane" when he got back from the cabin because that is exactly how Ransom was acting. The long verses of prose were good in the beginning, but I scanned through the ones later in the book because I was more interested in the narrative of the story. Mr. Shapero needs to shave at least 75 pages out of the book, the prose mostly. I would like encourage Mr. Shapero to keep on writing and not get discouraged by the negative reviews of this book. I was very disappointed because he could have written a profound book. The talent and depth is there. Lighten up on the LSD. The one word description of this book is disturbing.