In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money …
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.
Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.
When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naivete, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Read this book with my ninth-grade literature class. My students were initially intrigued, often times baffled by the character of Chris McCandless and his story. Jon Krakauer goes into painstaking detail, and the book catalogs the effort to find that painstaking detail. But this is largely where to book goes wrong. It doesn't feel cohesive and it often lost us as readers. McCandless' story can be inspiring but bogged down by pages of minuscule detail, loose conjecture, and stories of different adventurers that don't relate to McCandless' own, the power of witnessing McCandless' short but passionate life is all but snuffed out. You can tell that the book is not Krakauer's preferred form. As one of my students said, "this is why no one reads magazines anymore."
The book was nice, easy read. It reads like a long magazine piece, and can be read in a couple of hours. The movie about this story is really excellent and outshines the book, because you can actually see the places Chris went during his journey, which are all just beautiful. On the other hand, Chris had excellent reading material and the book has some of his favorite passages and quotes.
I had watched the movie and enjoyed it, so I figured this would be a good read, since I also enjoyed Krakauer's riveting "Into Thin Air." Though the movie did a good job of condensing the essential character of the story, the book of course greatly expands it with nuance and depth. This is a great book, especially for those of us who are drawn to the wilderness. I appreciated Krakauer's reverent treatment of McCandless and his refusal to downplay the spiritual tenacity of his journey, going so far as to draw out his own personal connection to McCandless' story.
This is a book I would definitely NEVER have picked up or signed up for a ring for on my own. Unfortunately, this book only reminded me of why that is and has reinforced my disinterest in reading books of this similar vein. Why is that for me? I have to relate to something in the book. I did not care for the author, nor did I relate at all to the subject of the book. I found both had a position in life that is not how I am. Both are intelligent men who had a thirst for adventure. I can understand that. However, their attitudes and personalities as depicted are much of a turn-off to me. I do not think I could ever have a conversation with either of them.
The writing is interesting and I do like how Mr. Karkauer circles around. You know from the outset …
This is a book I would definitely NEVER have picked up or signed up for a ring for on my own. Unfortunately, this book only reminded me of why that is and has reinforced my disinterest in reading books of this similar vein. Why is that for me? I have to relate to something in the book. I did not care for the author, nor did I relate at all to the subject of the book. I found both had a position in life that is not how I am. Both are intelligent men who had a thirst for adventure. I can understand that. However, their attitudes and personalities as depicted are much of a turn-off to me. I do not think I could ever have a conversation with either of them.
The writing is interesting and I do like how Mr. Karkauer circles around. You know from the outset what happens to Chris McCandless. The story starts and ends there, and comes back there many times in between. You learn about Chris's and Krakauer's journeys.
I won't go into exactly what I didn't like about McCandless, because that is somewhat pointless. However, as someone who attended religious schools for 12 years, I will say I know how to spot a Jesus-character and he certainly was one. If he had lived through his adventure, it sounds like he would have continued in the more stable bits of a Jesus-life. However, he had the family abandonment and searching for something better aspect going strong for the part of his life this book focuses on.
