"Terrifying... Eloquent... A heart-rending drama of human yearning." --New York Times
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 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 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.
Reviews Done Quick
I picked up Into The Wild while at my family's cabin in Northern Wisconsin. From a landscape perspective it seemed like a perfect match. All I can say is thank goodness it is short. As usual, Jon Krakauer's writing was spot on, it was his subject matter that was the problem, Christopher Johnson McCandless AKA Alexander Supertramp. In my opinion, Chris McCandless came off as a self-centered brat who fell into the category of "I don't care about money" because he had it. Chris meets numerous people during his travels who want to help him and each time he brushed them off I rolled my eyes. His inability to listen to those more experienced, coupled with his disregard for common-sense (who doesn't bring a map to Alaska?) had me groaning throughout the novel. I think that Into the Wild is a love it or hate it book that will evoke strong emotions for each reader. My opinion however, was not "super".
This review was originally posted on First Impressions Reviews
Reading updates
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Started reading
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29 March, 2018:
Finished reading
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29 March, 2018:
Reviewed