---
product_id: 11641077
title: "The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival"
brand: "craig childs"
price: "€ 42.93"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.gr/products/11641077-the-way-out-a-true-story-of-ruin-and-survival
store_origin: GR
region: Greece
---

# The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival

**Brand:** craig childs
**Price:** € 42.93
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival by craig childs
- **How much does it cost?** € 42.93 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.gr](https://www.desertcart.gr/products/11641077-the-way-out-a-true-story-of-ruin-and-survival)

## Best For

- craig childs enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted craig childs brand quality
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## Description

The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival

## Images

![The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tgXbAtIKL.jpg)
![The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wzzf0gRnL.jpg)
![The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31ujk9rCE0L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    a little slow
  

*by D***Y on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2023*

Good writer, amazing descriptions and thoughts but the story I was waiting for and the one I got was slower and dragged on a little less exciting than I thought it was going to be.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good But Incomplete
  

*by W***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 1, 2012*

I really liked Craig Childs' House of Rain, partly because it offered interesting observations and reflections on the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans), a culture I have studied a great deal, and partly because of the author's skill at descriptive writing. That book left me wanting to know about the writer, an unusual person who spends weeks at a time walking across the southwest, even in the middle of winter. Hence, I was drawn to read The Way Out, which, in part, is a reflection on Childs' relationship with his father.In The Way Out, Childs' memories of his father, and the stories of Dirk Vaughn's former life as a cop, which were woven in and out of the tale of their hiking expedition, were interesting. Both of the companions had tortured pasts that, in a way, were mirrored in the torturous piece of nature they had to navigate. But I did not see much of a parallel between the "The Way Out" of their physical trek and "the way out" of their past experiences related to a "disturbed, raging, alcoholic father" and the very difficult, violent, and painful, life of a police officer. (Perhaps the book's title was not supposed to apply to their life stories, which were such a prominent part of the reader's experience???) Dirk's "way out" of his past was to retire from police work (after a horrific car accident that caused a death prompted him to quit) and become involved in the rugged outdoors, which does not really relate well to the book's title. As for Childs' past related to his father, I now have pictures of the father from Childs' eyes, and pictures of some of Childs' experiences with him, but I have no idea how those experiences affected Childs' or how (or if) he found a "way out" of his father-son relationship. Or a "way through?" Or a learning to live with whatever residue remains within him from his relationship with his father?Just reading stories related to his dad was not enough for me. Where did Craig Childs go with those experiences? What did he do with them? How did they shape him?  How do they drive him? How do they relate to his need to take on treks in nature (such as the one the book describes) that few people would have the desire or ability to undertake? How is he like his father? How is he different? Other than being torturous, how did his father-son experiences relate to the physical journey the book describes?Childs is a very gifted writer, and, for the most part I enjoyed his book. But by the end I was tired of each little observation or experience being molded by the powers of the intellect into a creative metaphor. Some descriptions were too contrived for me, and I felt like I was wading through molasses to get to the end. I would have liked less creativity!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Not my favorite book by Childs
  

*by B***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2009*

Subtitled "a true story of ruin and survival," The Way Out is an account of Childs' and his good friend Dirk Vaughn's mid-winter crossing of a convoluted wilderness area along the Arizona-Utah border.  During their sixteen day adventure the two men face not only the challenges of the broken, primeval terrain, but they also deal with their own inner demons--Childs' anger over the psychological damage inflicted by his late alcoholic father; Dirk's memories of the persons he harmed (including one man he killed accidentally) during his career as a policeman.  If highly detailed description of a multi-day exploration through a maze of canyons carved out of Navajo sandstone, including flashbacks to earlier traumatic experiences, is your bag, this is the book for you.  I, however, was almost as tired of the duo's adventure as they were by the end of the book.  There may be such a thing as too much description.

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*Product available on Desertcart Greece*
*Store origin: GR*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*