Nelle terre estreme è il libro che racconta la vera storia di Chris McCandless, giovane americano morto durante un viaggio in Alaska nel 1992. L’alpinista e giornalista Jon Krakauer, colpito dalla storia, conduce un'inchiesta, ricostruendo gli ultimi due anni della vita avventurosa di Chris e ragionando sulle cause dell’assurda morte. Da questo libro è tratto il film di Sean Penn Into the Wild, del 2007.

Krakauer racconta la vita di McCandless in modo appassionante, iniziando dalla sua morte, saltando dunque all’indietro nel tempo e tornando sul luogo del delitto solo negli ultimissimi capitoli. La vicenda di McCandless è inframezzata da una parte dove sono raccontate le vicende di altri viaggiatori delle “terre estreme”, e le loro morti spesso incomprensibili. A questi racconti si aggiunge quello autobiografico di Krakauer, che proprio in Alaska ha vissuto un’esperienza simile a quella di McCandless, ma uscendone vivo.

Il libro cita i miti letterari del protagonista McCandless: in primo luogo Lev Tolstoj, e soltanto in seconda battuta Jack London. London è anche l’evidente riferimento letterario dell’opera di Krakauer, e non solo per l’idea di richiamo della foresta che fa diventare selvatici i cani addomesticati, svelandone la vera natura (l’equazione sarebbe McCandless = Buck). La storia richiama anche personaggi di London come i cercatori d’oro sprovveduti, morti per ingordigia e poca considerazione del pericolo – l’esemplare racconto Farsi un fuoco viene citato esplicitamente da Krakauer.

Il libro non sarà gradito solo ai fan di McCandless, che ne venerano lo spirito romantico, adorandolo come uno dei tanti eroi maledetti. Nelle terre estreme è un esempio di non-fiction apprezzabile per chiunque trovi la vicenda affascinante, pur senza amarne molto il protagonista. Krakauer, che dichiara subito la propria simpatia per il personaggio di McCandless, nel quale si identifica, riesce a restituirne un ritratto che non puzza di elegia e che non ne nasconde le idiosincrasie e il narcisismo. Il giornalista, affezionatosi alla figura di McCandless attraverso i suoi diari, intervista le persone che sono state a contatto con lui nei due anni precedenti la morte, e anche quei familiari che Chris non vedeva né sentiva dal momento della partenza. Vuole dimostrare che McCandless non era né un suicida né un incompetente, ma un ragazzo caparbio la cui fine tragica dipese da alcune ingenuità che controbilanciarono troppo severamente gli sforzi compiuti per vivere “into the wild”.

Laddove il film di Sean Penn è spesso mieloso e posticcio nel voler fare di McCandless un eroe a ogni costo, il libro di Krakauer è più misurato. Non abbiamo la critica caustica presente in un documentario come Grizzly Man di Werner Herzog, ma il giornalista non esita qui a mettere in luce anche i tratti meno brillanti della personalità di Chris, restituendo il ritratto di un ragazzo testardo ma alla mano, affabile, è vero, ma anche dotato di eccentricità non sempre gradevoli, votato all’ascetismo con la forza caparbia e un po’ isterica delle convinzioni adolescenziali.

Si può dire che per Krakauer in McCandless si riassumono entrambe le anime che agitano i personaggi di London: quella degli uomini arroganti e sprovveduti, “privi di immaginazione” (Farsi un fuoco), che affrontano la natura senza conoscerne le regole o sottovalutandone i pericoli, uomini che per questo moriranno; e quella del cane Buck e di Zanna Bianca, che vivono al massimo della propria potenza immersi nel paesaggio meraviglioso ma letale per il quale sono stati creati.

Nel 2013 è stata confermata la tesi di Krakauer, ossia che McCandless sia morto a causa dell’avvelenamento provocato dai semi di patata selvatica.
Qui l’articolo che ha pubblicato sul New Yorker a tale proposito: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Krakauer non manca di sottolineare, come fa nel libro, di aver ricevuto migliaia di lettere non solo da parte dei fan di McCandless, ma anche da persone indignate che accusano McCandless di essere stato un ragazzino viziato e arrogante, morto per stupidità, e Krakauer un cattivo giornalista per averlo reso un mito con la pubblicazione della sua inchiesta. Chi ha letto Nelle terre estreme sa che Krakauer, per quanto ammirato dalla figura di McCandless, ha cercato di narrare con obiettività i fatti, provando a spiegare le ragioni che spinsero il ragazzo ad agire nel modo che lo ha poi condotto alla morte. Che ci piaccia o no, la storia di McCandless, come le altre citate – compreso il racconto autobiografico della scalata dello stesso Krakauer –, rimane un esempio di letteratura di frontiera, la vicenda ancestrale in cui un giovane deve mettersi alla prova sfidando forze sovraumane (la natura incontaminata), disposto a soccombere pur di portare a termine la propria missione. Come sappiamo, il confine tra eroismo e stupidità può essere ambiguo e labile, e la storia di McCandless lo chiarisce molto bene.

Sulla stessa vicenda è uscito recentemente per Corbaccio il libro Into the wild truth di Carine McCandless, la sorella minore di Chris.

This was an intensely frustrating reading experience. I kept getting the impression I was meant to sympathize with this guy, or at least see him as somewhat heroic or adventurous. But he's not. He's foolish, and arrogant, and silly. He's a spoiled white guy from a comfortable home who throws it all away to go hike through the Arctic with nothing. He keeps refusing perfectly fine advice from everyone he meets. He brings insufficient equipment. He is unskilled in the essentials. And then, to no one's surprise but his own, he dies before he gets anywhere. He starves and freezes to death in a bus. And this is supposed to be tragic enough to warrant a book about him? No. Hamlet is tragic. Oedipus is tragic. This guy is an idiot.

He read a lot of Jack London. He got inspired and awed by the romantic beauty of the Arctic. Fine. So did I. But he clearly didn't read it properly. London's message is that the Arctic is a harsh, unforgiving place, and the only people who go there who don't have to are greedy assholes, and if you aren't extremely lucky or brilliant, you will die there. And also, the other message is, bring proper equipment.

It's not that I love modernity, or that I disagree that humanity has lost something in his urban cages. I love The Call of the Wild - I get it. I understand. But this kid is not a wolf. And wolves don't need equipment. Sheltered little suburban kids do. I just couldn't get into this book's mindset. I felt no sympathy, no tragedy. I suppose it works as comedy, if you don't feel bad for this kid earning a Darwin award and getting himself killed. But I wasn't cruel enough to enjoy it on that level. So, I was just put-off.

There's a fantastic movie called Grizzly Man, about a real guy who decided to live with bears for a while. And he did, successfully, for many years. Then, one day, he brought his girlfriend along with him to the bears, and one of his favourite bears waltzed up to them and promptly decapitated them both. And the movie makes absolutely no bones about it - this kid was wrong. It states that clearly, emphatically, that this kid is directly responsible for his own and his girlfriend's death. It has the courage to fall on the right side of this issue. The movie is an analysis of this guy's psychosis. Brilliant.

This book, on the other hand, stays on the fence. It wants us to decide. It acknowledges that he made some mistakes, but that's how it always puts it: "He made some mistakes, but..." Always "but." For me, there was no "but." There was no yin and yang, no two sides, no neutrality. You can go on adventures, and find your Jungian shadow, and not be an idiot about it. To have no strong opinion, to stay neutral, when a young, ignorant, arrogant man makes a series of extremely avoidable errors and gets himself killed, isn't there something morally irresponsible about that?

People seem to either love or hate Christopher McCandless. I have a deep and passionate admiration of the young man, which is why this book left such a haunting impression on me. His travels across America which culminated with his Alaskan odyssey show a man deeply immersed in adventure and completely disillusioned by the constraints of society. Like Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer seems to write so well on the beauty and dangers of nature, our fascination with it and what nature can reveal in a man, and Into the Wild questions and ponders as deeply and as profoundly as any work of philosophy. McCandless' own diary entries inspired me, moved me and haunted me more so than any other book I've read this year.

I thought this was an excellent exploration of this tragic event. I have not watched the movie, and my knowledge was limited, apart from knowing this young man burnt his remaining cash at the start of a trip and died in a tragic way, all alone.

The author has adventured much as Chris McCandless did, hiking solo in extreme weather, and being unafraid of doing so. He retraced certain steps that Chris took, and being a journalist, wrote of Chris' misadventure. This then started his journey into delving deeply into this complex and layered young person.

Chris met so many people along the way, forming connections with strangers in an easier way than he did his own family. These friends provided letters and detailed and initmate conversations to the author, and we are left feeling that we know Chris. Chris went by the name of Alex for much of the time, really trying to distance himself from his tangible past.

The young idealistic man abhorred the idea of formal education, owning things and laying down roots. He would talk seriously and deeply to those he met, almost counselling them in the way of a nomadic lifestyle. An older gentleman who took Chris under his wing even took up this advice, packing his belongings and heading for the wilderness.

Chris struck all he met as serious, an overthinker, passionate and someone to always buck the rules. His father spoke of his inability to bend his ways to learn things properly, going head first with a kind of tunnel vision. Chris was devastated by a pivotal lie of his father, a misstep in the way he lived his life (he was eventually discovered to be a bigimist), and this lie effected Chris deeply. He revealed to friends this was intolerable and another reasone to have severed his familial relationships.

He loved people, worked hard for people he met, maintained friendships over long distances and letter writing. Chris was a brilliant young man, a man that has been judged by a counrty and internationally, but this book lays out many truths with much scientific research and heavy questioning. I believe the author did an outstanding job. It seems Chris was not mentally unwell, though extremely idealistic and a man full of complex ideas and reasonings.

Many will accuse this traveller of being reckless, ill prepared, naive and will place the blame directly. Chris did have strange ways; he turned up to college with a machete and rifle (for hunting), but he succeeded at college while his preppy room mate dropped out. Chris attended college for his family, which was surprising given he vehemently opposed this unecessary formality.

The family of this man were estranged at the time and found his death very hard to deal with, I believe the author helped the McCandlass family so much in the understanding of this tragic case. Anyone with interest in this tragedy would be assisted by reading this, the proposed ending of this young man's life is very different what many people would assume.

Deflty narrated by Philip Franklin, I listened to this on the Indyreads platform, via the State Library of NSW at 1.25 speed.

Tudo, Tudo e Nada


Chris McCandless tinha Tudo - família, dinheiro a potes, e logo que concluísse os estudos, aguardava-o uma carreira promissora.
Chris McCandless tinha Tudo, sim!
Um Tudo que era um Nada dissimulado!
Dir-se-ia que esse famigerado tudo pertencia a outro que não ele, a um falso Chris que sufocava e amordaçava o jovem aventureiro de gema - um amante de Desafios, Liberdade e Autenticidade!...
Só aniquilando, reduzindo a cinzas esse Chris forjado, é que o verdadeiro Chris poderia finalmente emergir!...
Por conseguinte, num impulso radical e selvagem, Chris larga tudo e todos, rumando ao Alaska, essa terra inóspita que será a grandiosa parteira do seu Ser...

Chris era humano como nós e teremos certamente muitos defeitos a apontar-lhe. Não obstante, a incessante busca de si mesmo é um tocante ponto de inspiração.
Por muito longa que seja uma vida, se não nos colarmos aos nossos sonhos, será falsa - uma vida que vivemos como nossa, sem que todavia nos pertença!
Soterramos aquilo que somos!
Morremos sem nunca ter nascido!...

3ish stars.

The movie adaptation is one of my all-time faves. Of course, while this book is an unnecessarily expanded version of what was originally an article written by Krakauer, the movie turns it into an epic, dramatized, stranger-than-fiction, based-on-a -true-story biopic of Christopher McCandless.

McCandless in the book is still an enigmatic, magnetic, fascinating man, but would I have felt the same if I hadn't already loved Emile Hirsch's portrayal of him? Would I have been affected as much by the touching, powerful relationships he shared with Jan Burres, and Ron Franz if I hadn't been picturing the incredible cinematic performances of Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook in my mind?

McCandless's story is awe-inspiring regardless, but Krakauer stretches it far past the breaking point by including narratives of other, similarly ill-fated explorers (including his own experiences), among other frivolous details that I honestly could have done without.

One of the uncommon instances where the movie surpasses the book, but I'm not disappointed I read it. Makes me want to get out and go hiking or backpacking; my wife and I have a goal to visit each of the 59 U.S. National Parks (we've been to 10/59 so far, a long way to go). Or if nothing else, to watch the movie again. :)

Posted in Mr. Philip's Library

One of those rare instances where the movie was as good if not better than the book... watch the movie, read the chapters 17 and 18, and the excerpts from Thoreau and Tolstoy at the beginning of each chapter - best route to take in this wonderful story.

I broke two of my reading rules with this book.

One: I saw the movie “Into the Wild”, which starred Emile Hirsch (who by the way played a magnificent part) and directed by Sean Penn first. It was my husband’s turn to pick a movie to watch and this was his choice. I usually always read the book first and then, if I really liked it, I’d seek out the movie and watch it.

Two: Well. After seeing the movie I knew I was going to read the book but since my library is still closed, due to the pandemic, it was off to Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy, which I obviously did. I then proceeded to read some member reviews, again, something I never do until I finish reading the book.

And there you have it!

I think seeing the movie before actually reading the book was somewhat helpful just to get some insight because I had absolutely no idea who Christopher McCandless was. As far as reading member reviews before reading the book I’ll just chalk that up to just being curious.

The story of Christopher McCandless and his “adventure” into the wild was enthralling on so many levels. I went through so many emotions, ups and downs, but never did I think, as many members did, that Christopher McCandless had emotional problems. He just listened to a “different drummer” and wanted to live his life, his way.

Many members said that Jon Krakauer gave a little bit more information in the book, probably a little more than was necessary, such as giving you backgrounds of others who attempted the same “adventure” and I’d definitely have to agree.

Overall an enjoyable and sad book, one that I think will stay with me for awhile...

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this book. The genesis of the book was an in-depth magazine article, and I suspect that the article was superb. But I just don't think there's enough here to warrant an entire book. As evidence, I point to several lengthy chapters that have nothing to do with the underlying story--they discuss other people who have gone "into the wild" and, surprisingly, Krakauer includes a whole chapter about himself.

My other problem is that I found myself unable to identify or empathize with the central character here. I think that Chris McCandless was not much more than a privileged, entitled, selfish, and undeniably intelligent person who threw everything away and nearly destroyed his family for reasons that weren't any clearer by the end of the book than they were at the beginning. I worried far more about his parents and his sister, who he called his "best friend," than I did about him.

I ended up "finishing" the book by skimming the last 1/3, or maybe even the last 1/2. I almost gave this only 1 star but decided to go with 2 because I want to give Krakauer the benefit of the doubt--it's a well-written book, I just don't think it needed to be written at all.

okay. lets address the elephant on goodreads, which is the common theme of essentially bashing chris mccandless in reviews. i have seen so many ranting about how irresponsible and selfish and arrogant and unprepared he was. and i mean, theyre not wrong, but that honestly has nothing to do with the book?

what i love most about this is how objective krakauer is. he neither praises nor critiques mccandless, but presents the facts regarding an unfortunate event in a very interesting and fascinating way. which leads me to believe that many people did not understand the nature of this book.

yes, mccandless thought so highly of himself that he literally went out into the alaskan wilderness, equipped with only a plant guide, and felt confident that he could survive. yes, he ignored the number one rule of boys scouts - to be prepared. yes, he only thought about how his actions affected himself. but man, the manner in which krakauer tells chris' story is so gripping that i couldnt help but get invested in everything that happened. this book reads like a true crime story, but where the only crime committed was a serious lack of judgement by a very misguided individual.

so it seems massively unfair to penalise the book itself because of disagreeing with what a young man did. but hey, to each their own.

↠ 4 stars

After watching the film of the same name, I was interested to learn more about the life of the kid described. His was a captivating story and I was hungry for further details of Alex Supertramp's life.

However, this book mostly served as a reminder of why I don't like to read books written by journalists. Jon Krakauer is a fine writer, but like many other journalists is prone to irritating exaggeration and spent quite a bit of time romanticizing the parallels between Supertramp's life and his own.

In fact, the entire book was a romanticization of the ultimately fatal journey of Supertramp. It's not that I take issue with the telling of Alex's tale (I found his two-year journey to be interesting and somewhat surprising), it's that Krakauer seemed bent on clearing Supertramp's name.

Krakauer tells us that after publishing the preliminary story of Supertramp's death in Outside magazine, he received a large response from readers less than impressed with Alex's mission. Krakauer seemed to look at Into the Wild as an opportunity to convince readers that Alex wasn't just some stupid kid ignorantly seeking adventure in dangerous places; that somehow because of Supertramp's well-educated and privileged background he was in some way intellectually and morally superior to the many other individuals who have embarked on similar journeys. Karakauer wants us to understand that he believes Alex embarked on what amounts to "a rite of passage in our culture" (pg. 190) and that it wasn't his mistakes that caused his untimely death, but rather circumstances out of his control. We are meant to feel sympathy for the poor privileged white kid who was merely fulfilling his role as twenty-something, upper class white male.

Krakauer identified strongly with Alex Supertramp (as noted in chapters 14 and 15 which are devoted entirely to stories paralelling Krakauer's experiences with Alex's) and, in my opinion, took away quite a bit from Alex's story by entwining it with his own. Though I found the story of Alex and other's fatal journeys into "the wild" to be somewhat interesting from a sociological perspective, ultimately this book did very little for me. Hence the two stars.

This book reminded me why I usually stick to Christian literature. What a depressing and tragic tale.

Chris McCandless aka Alex Supertramp, gave away his savings, left his family and friends and headed off into the wilderness. He lived nomadically for a couple of years encountering various people along the way. His ultimate goal was to head into the wilds of Alaska and live off the land. This he did, but a few mistakes ended up costing him everything. His emaciated body was found by hikers in an abandoned bus some time later.

The author has done an amazing job of following McCandless's elusive trail and collating all of the accounts and memories into a biography. He jumps around a bit--I would have preferred a chronological account. Likewise, he repeats some detail in places. The inclusion of details of others who have similarly disappeared was a good call. It made the narrative a lot more interesting. Also, the account of the author's own expedition into the mountains and near death experiences.

However, as a Christian, I cannot help but wonder what benefit there is from this account and what lessons can be learned from the life of Chris McCandless and others. This appears to be a tale without hope because the author and no doubt many readers are assuming that there is no life after death. They assume that those who die apart from God will simple cease to exist or will automatically go to heaven. The only hope for Chris McCandless is that as he had been born and raised in America, he would likely have heard the saving news of Jesus in his lifetime. Whether or not he turned to God in his hour of need we do not know, if he did, he makes no reference to it in his final writings. What can be more devastating than a life lived without hope and with no assurance of eternal life in heaven?

This tale gets worse in that as a result of McCandless's pointless death, at least three people renounced their faith in God. They turned away from the only source of true hope believing that a God of love would not have allowed this terrible thing to happen to someone they cared about. But, how real is our faith if we only worship God in the good times? Convincing ourselves that God isn't there and walking away from Him doesn't change the reality that we will one day stand before Him to give an account of our lives. One can only hope that these people were speaking out of their understandable grief and will be reconciled to God in due course.

These wanderings into the wilderness seeking spiritual experiences or a better understanding of self, seem to always end in a person either becoming more introverted and selfish or as in the case of McCandless dying a painful and senseless death at a young age. I can only imagine how those years were for his family. We are created to live in community and to serve and help each other, not to isolate ourselves and fixate on our problems.

The author observes that McCandless was searching for something but that he didn't know what it was. We are all searching for a purpose and meaning which can only be found in a relationship with God, our Creator. Sadly, neither McCandless or the author seem to have realised that. I guess the author is still searching. His comments about the workings of the mind in the many characters he describes are interesting but don't explain the reasons people really head off on these diversions.

Despite my observations, this was a good read. It is well researched and apart from the very strong language which was fairly frequent, it is well written with a lot of creative detail. Those who enjoy climbing/adventure books may want to read it and will probably better understand a lot of the technical terms employed by the author. There is no sexual content or violence. There are graphic descriptions of death.

This book will go someway to convincing people of the hopelessness and meaninglessness of life without God. It screams from the pages. Tragically, it is now too late for Chris McCandless, one can only pray that others sense their precarious position and are convicted and rescued as a result of his story.