A Long Walk

I'm reading a book called The Walk West: Walk Across America Two.
I had read the first book several years ago, and finally picked up this sequel. In the first book Peter Jenkins and his dog walk from the Northeast down to New Orleans. There, he meets and falls in love with Barbara. They marry and she continues on the walk with him from New Orleans to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon. First it blows my mind that anyone could really walk that far. I stare in disbelief at the little line across the map of the United States that shows their route. The worst part is that they walk through Texas in July and August! Are they crazy? They meet interesting people along the way and stop every once and a while to earn money or stay with people for a few days or a few months (to wait out the winter before crossing the Rockies.) I went to Jenkins' web site out of curiosity and one of the things I found is that he and Barbara got divorced about 10 years and three kids after the walk. Now I know relationships are extremely complex, and there's no way to know what happened in theirs. However, as I read this book I have noticed a few incidents that I believe speak deeply about Peter's character. There have been a couple of times that he has treated Barbara very cruely, especially considering all she's given up to help him fulfill his dream of walking across America. It is clear that although she is willing to do the walk, it is not her dream, and it is a tremendous drain physically and emotionally for her. Once it describes him becoming frustrated with her slow pace. He says mean things to her and eventually grabs her by the shoulders and shoves her backward so hard that she falls. Much later in the book it describes another unprovoked verbal attack on her pace (he was just feeling mean because of the walk it explains). After rude remarks, he walks off ahead of her and says he doesn't care what happens to her. They always make up after these fights, and sometimes she is mean to him as well. However, he always seems to be the agressor. I can tell you one thing right now- there is no way Cody would ever grab me and throw me down. It's just an impossiblity. There's not a thing in the world that could make him angry enough or that out of control. And while I'm at it, not only would he never push me, he wouldn't verbally berate me. He has never lost his temper and said mean things to me. It's really honest of the author to include these little passages that show his weakness of character, considering he could have easily left them out. But, they really stick out in my mind and lessen my opinion of him.