Title: Into the WildAuthor: Jon Krakauer
First Published: January 13, 1996
Publisher: Anchor
Pages: 240
Genre: Biography, Non-Fiction
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
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. 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 Christopher Johnson 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 drives and desires that propelled McCandless.
When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, 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.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
I first learned about Christopher McCandless while watching a video about haunting last photos. It was a simple picture of a disheveled young man smiling and waving in the wilderness. I had no idea how famous his story was, or that there was a movie adaptation of this book until after I had read it, and I was absolutely blown away.
McCandless was a promising young man, a recent college graduate from my home state of Virginia. Deeply interested in philosophy and frustrated with the modern world, McCandless disappeared, traveling across America to experience the world. The diary that he kept and photos he had taken of his travels are fascinating. Despite knowing that his story would end in tragedy I was captivated by McCandless’ story. Alongside McCandless’ story, Krakauer weaves in his own story of mountain climbing in Alaska, the danger he experienced and the exhilaration of being at the mercy of nature. I related strongly to Krakauer’s admiration for McCandless’ quest for adventure and freedom, to live a more austere life intimately connected with the world.
The odyssey of Christopher McCandless and his tragic demise in the Alaskan bush continues to captivate people decades after his death. The reactions of his story range wildly from admiration of indomitable spirit to extreme derision for his naivete. It feels odd and a little disturbing seeing how far his fame has spread that so many backpackers travel out to the site of his death, with enough people being stranded that the state of Alaska had to air lift the bus he had stayed in.
Despite being a piece of investigative journalism Krakauer keeps the narrative fresh and easy to read, I had a hard time putting the book down. This book made me an instant fan of Krakauer’s work.
Quote
“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.
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