Well, of course I can't decide if it will be worth $56 to you, but if you look at it on a "pounds of paper and binding per dollar" basis, I feel you DO get your money's worth! ;-)
I read one review where the reviewer said that Wild could have used a good editor and could have slimmed down the book to a more manageable size, but I certainly don't mind Wild's discursiveness at all. I'm about a quarter of the way through it so far, and I can say that it's full of wonderful stories, and he pulls no punches in describing what he thinks about people and things. Example:
The word "technician" is usually used as a derogatory term, implying that you play without any emotion, giving only dry, technically dutiful, and machine-like clinical performances. This could not be a more inaccurate conclusion. Good technique comes from years and years of devotion to one's art, a constant analysis of one's playing, delving into the music at hand, and exhaustive listening to oneself. It goes far beyond the highly overrated attitude of "profundity"! I feel the term "profound" is a synonym for "pedantic".
Or this account of an exchange between Zinka Milanov and Fausto Cleva at the Met:
I remember an amusing moment at one of Zinka's Met rehearsals when she was performing in a production of Norma. The conductor was Fausto Cleva (1902- 1971), and Zinka was onstage during a run-through for that night's performance. Zinka happened to sing an incorrect turn and Maustro Cleva, who was an excellent conductor and knew the music backward and forward, stopped the rehearsal and asked the orchestra to please play the correct turn for Mme. Milanov. Zinka was so angered at Maestro Cleva's behavior that she walked downstage to the footlights and spoke to him across the pit. "I no come to this rehearsal for me; I come for you!" Cleva shot back, "Zinka, you a bad girl - I bet you bad in bed too!" To that, Zinka responded, "Ah, you remember!"
So if this is the kind of material that sounds as appealing to you as as it is to me, then I say, go ahead and risk your $56. ;-)
Edits: 09/17/11
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