Using the true story of a young man, who in 1992 walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later, Krakauer explores the obsession which leads some people to explore the outer limits of self, leave civilization behind and seek enlightenment through solitude and contact with nature.
"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't--cannot--answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
The movie made me read it...:
I saw the movie first and just knew I had to read the book. I still have mixed feelings about this guy. I envy his nerve but he was too smart to have been so ill-prepared. Maybe he was a little arrogant and spoiled. I also question why he seemingly wasn't fishing more. I recommend this book, but I am always drawn to non-fiction. I like the way the author adds his own experiences as well as those of other similar characters. It's a very good read.
Enjoyed it.:
I really enjoyed the book. The book covers a little more than the movie covered and goes into other discussions about adventures into the Alaskan wilderness. I don't know which one I liked better, but I have watched and read both versions of this story over and over. You won't be disappointed.
Fully Engaging True Story:
A literary genius, Krakauer engages the reader so well that one puts it down still wallowing in the emotions of the main character, Christopher McCandless. A true story which begun from a journalist's work, Krakauer draws parallels between his obsession with the McCandless and his own life - where he was always seeking the next adventure, the next high. This book will absolutely connect you to the life of Christopher McCandless, who was simply a boy who challenged the rules in search of a life worth... more info
Into the wild:
A very good book that shed light on an incident of which I had only heard rumor and hearsay. Krakauer did an outstanding job researching and retracing McCandless' odyssey, through his tragic demise. Krakauer also keeps the book from devolving into a documentary by trying to dig into McCandless's mind and extrapolate what his thoughts might have been. The author is able to do this so well because he readily admits he strongly relates to the main character. Like many men who have survived their 20's, I was... more info
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