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Bill Bryson is the author of many books. Most are about his travels around the world, and the hilarities that pursue him everywhere, whether it be in the Australian Outback, Scandinavia or the Appalachian Trail. In A Walk in the Woods, he finds himself out of his league in his attempt to complete the 2100 mile Appalachian trail.
Bryson is driven, determined and intelligent, yet amusing. He finds humour in the most desperate of situations, but also manages to find space to write about the problems of today's world. Born in the United States but raised in the United Kingdom, Bryson makes it a mission to tackle the issues surrounding North American culture. Bryson talks of the destruction of America's National Parks, the over-commercialization of historic sites and problems that volumes of tourists and their ever-polluting cars create in nature. Being brought up away from American culture helps Bryson to correctly diagnose the faults that come North American society.
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Stephen Katz is man whose years of heavy drinking and illegal drugs had finally caught up with him. "He had partied for years, until there was no one left for him to party with, then he had partied with himself, alone in small apartments, in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, with a bottle and a baggie of pot and a TV with rabbit ears" (Bryson 21). When he decided to tackle the Appalachian Trail, he was overweight and had an enormous pot-belly. He was also left with a condition (a result of a bad batch of drugs) that gave him seizures if he didn't have something to eat every hour.
However out of shape and unhealthy he was, Katz had a sense of humour that could make anyone break into laughter. He had a dry wit, and a knack for sarcastic comments. At one point on the trail when he and Bryson were forced to share a shelter with a noisy and snobby group of weekend hikers, Katz left in the morning with a pair of suede shoelaces. They belonged to the rudest member of the group, and Katz had no regrets about taking them from her. According to him, she deserved it.
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