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Search - Into the Wild
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Book Description:
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.Members who requested this book also requested: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.
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Genres:
- Biographies & Memoirs >> General
- Biographies & Memoirs >> Regional U.S. >> West
- Biographies & Memoirs >> Travel
- Travel >> General >> Essays & Travelogues
- Travel >> United States >> Regions >> West >> Pacific
- Travel >> United States >> States >> Alaska >> General
- Travel >> Specialty Travel >> Adventure >> General
Top Member Reviews
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
As usual, a thoroughly enjoyable and thoughful non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer. I read anything by this author. I have never been disappointed yet. In this book, Krakauer covers the sad, true tale of a young adventurer who pushed himself until he died. Krakauer wrote the original article about Chris McCandless in Outside Magazine before he went on to write this book. He does a good job of piecing together the last 2 years of Chris' life by throrough research, speaking with his family and anyone who was in contact with Chris, and actually going to the places covered by Chris in his travels. Krakauer also devotes a couple of chapters to his own wonderlust as a young man in attempting to climb a mountain. I found this to be very interesting as well, having already read Into Thin Air, about Krakauer's climbing of Mt. Everest during a tragedy filled season which killed 7 climbers.
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
A little slow in the middle but an interesting look at the innerworkings of a man's mind and heart as he goes to / runs from something bigger than himself. The author's life and similar circumstances perhaps shed some light on a true mystery: why did Chris McCandless die in Alaska?
Kerry B. (
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Christopher McCandless goes into the wild but does not come back alive.
Such extreme personalities always seem to intrigue the adventure seeking mountain climber Krakauer, so true-to-form he investigates and reconstructs McCandless back story to delve into the hanging questions. What compels McCandless, a young man with apparently everything going for him, to discard anything he can't carry on his back and to head off into the wilds of Alaska? And what might he have learned?
Jon Krakauer knows how to write a compelling investigative story. Short read, engaging, but not a classic or Krakauer's best. Sean Penn directs an even better movie based on his own adaptation of story.
Kelly C. from ESCONDIDO, CA wrote on 5/1/2007...
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
One man's journey... Krakauer really knows package a story. Sensational yes but not quite riveting. If you liked "Into Thin Air" you'll like this - it's a good read with a good lesson.
Gin J. from GRAND SALINE, TX wrote on 4/25/2007...
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
krakauer is in my top-five authors list. a fantastically written true story of a man struggling to fit into society, and his subsequent isolation and demise.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
I didn't care for this book. I don't know why this guy was glorified so much. I think he needed some psychiatric care. I do feel bad for his family though.
As for the writing............not my cup of tea.
Laura R. (
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
But after 88 pages, i put it down, and put it up for swap. My husband liked the book a lot, I had a hard time getting into the story, it just seemed to me that this McCandless guy lost his marbles and his sense of perspective. Krakauer tries to make him seem like a hero, or a revolutionary, however i did not get any of that from the guy, just that he somehow lost his way, and turned on civilization. so many people loved this book,it was a bestseller and they made a movie about it, I am in the minority, this is just my opinion.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Great book, he was a great kid who seemed to be lost. He lived life on his terms and who would want anything else. The movie is great too.
Janis K. (
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
"Into the Wild" is both a chronicle of the life of American college grad turned drifter Chris McCandless, and a reflection on people whose somewhat anti-societal views lead them to embrace exploring the outer limits of nature's dangerous boundaries. Krakauer's mountain climbing experiences, as well as accounts of various other people is a visage which shows that many of the people who have been there are forever changed and most want to return.
Krakauer chronicles the adventure of Chris McCaddless who for years has his eyes set on a goal of both personal and spiritual definition as well as outcasting himself from the very society he often hated. Although the front of the book already tells Chris's fate, the harrowing and sometimes exhilarating journey that took him there is not lost on the reader...Life is a journey not a destination, and for Chris it is the friendships he accrues as well as the things he learned within himself that make his story so memorable.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
I was working at Emory University when Chris disappeared. I remember being disturbed by this story. I'll always wonder what really happened to him....what he was running from. I enjoyed reading Krakauer's other books too.
Rate These Member Reviews
krakauer is one of my favorite writers and i love his writing style. i like how the book explores the human psyche, why people would want to do things like chris mccandless did, and does an excellent job of researching many aspects of the case.
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods.
Sharon D. from DILLSBURG, PA wrote on 8/7/2008...I really enjoyed this book. Well written good insights.
Karyn S. (Depressing, yet inspiring. Jon Krakauer explores the final days of Chris McCandless AKA Alexander Supertramp and also delves into the psyche of those who seek to separate themselves from society and immerse themselves in the wild.
As a sidenote, Sean Penn's film serves as a beautiful visual companion to the book.
For anyone that has yearned to unplug from our 21st century life, has questioned the meaning of our existence, Chris McCandlesses journey across the country and into the wild is an intriguing look into the adventure that many dream and never realize. Krakauer uses his own restless and reckless youth to help him piece the scraps of "Alex Supertramp's" final years into a portrait of a young man that hoped to change himself by leaving convention behind. The book is by turns touching, disturbing and enlightening - and made me sad that Chris McCandless didn't return to tell the story himself.
Julie S. from JENKINTOWN, PA wrote on 5/26/2007...Jon Krakauer is an excellent writer. I really felt as if I got to know Chris McCandless and I have since saught out Krakauer's other books. One of those "can't put it down" books.
Terri F. from EPSOM, NH wrote on 4/16/2007...I read this book a long time ago and really enjoyed the mystery of it.
A heart rending drama of human yearning. True story of a young man who walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later his body was found by a moose hunter.
A riviting, tragic story, well told. The author has captured the sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man.
An amazing story of survival in the wild.
A story about one of us who just gets into the out of doors a bit too wildly. Much to his end. Compelling read.