His 2007 breakout album, "Life in Cartoon Motion, " introduced him as an eccentric, wild-haired singer with a falsetto voice that might've seemed out of place on the modern pop scene.
Cheryl Strayed's luminous essay, "Love of My Life, " a precursor to the best-selling memoir "Wild, " uses matter-of-fact language to make vivid a character gripped by uncontrollable impulses, a woman who acts in order to feel.