Jon Krakauer possesses a phenomenal skill in taking a non-fiction story and telling it in a way that does not bog you down in unmemorable details; but instead keeps you engrossed in the unfolding details of what happens next. In this story, Into the Wild, Mr. Krakauer tells the emotional story of a young man… Christopher McCandless, who in April of 1992, hiked into the Alaskan wilderness and never walked out. I listened to the audiobook version of this story and the fine narration was performed by Philip Franklin.

Although it quickly became apparent to me that Christopher McCandless' story had been widely covered in the national media at that time, I had been personally unaware of the story so it was completely fresh for me. Mr. Krakauer tells the story in an entertaining and yet informative manner… he not only attempts to trace the steps of Chris McCandless through McCandless's own writings.. such as letters and excerpts from a personal journal found among his personal effects after his death; but he also details interviews he conducted with people Chris McCandless met along his journey and his family members. He even relates snippets from his own personal history, seemingly able to personally identify with Chris McCandless and his feelings of wanderlust and his troubled relationship with his father.

Much of Chris McCandless's story is simply conjecture. What IS known is that he came from a well-to-do family outside of Washington, D.C. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, he cut off all ties to family and friends. He changed his name to 'Alexander Supertramp', gave away everything he owned, including the $24,000 in his savings account to OXFAM, his car (an old Datsun) , and he burned all of the cash in his wallet. 'Alex'/Chris then set off across the country …. hitchhiking and doing odd and short term jobs along the way , making just enough cash to continue on. Finally, in April 1992, 'Alex'/Chris hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness north of Mt.McKinley… carrying only a backpack containing a 10 pound bag of rice, a Remington rifle, some cooking utensils, a sleeping bag and an array of paperback books.

The portrait of Chris McCandless which takes place in this narrative seems to me to be one that is relatively common for someone his age. Chris McCandless was a contradiction.. as are many young people who are trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into society. He was intelligent, stubborn, had a very strong sense of social justice and seemed acutely aware of the inherent hypocrisy present in society… most especially among those he considered authority figures (his father, for example). At the same time, he could be short sighted, unforgiving at times.. especially of those who loved him most, and couldn't recognize his own hypocrisy concerning his unwillingness or inability to forgive those closest to him; but seemed to quite easily overlook those same failings in people he was said to admire but didn't really know. Chris seemed to be simply a young man struggling with his own identity and wrestling with accepting the reality of what it means to be a human being…. full of strengths, weaknesses and contradictions.

One question continued to arise for me as I listened to this story… was Chris McCandless understandable and perhaps even admirable… or was he simply just a foolish and short sighted young man who didn't seem to recognize his own ignorance of what it would take for him to survive in such harsh conditions? I struggled with my feelings about this young man and what he did; but in the end, I would have to say that he was both understandable AND incredibly foolish.As a parent of children who are similar in age to Chris McCandless, I was horrified by his seeming lack of caring about how his parents and siblings must have felt, having no idea where he was, what he was doing… or if he was even alive. I felt angry over his self-centeredness in not considering the feelings of anyone who cared about him. Oddly, at the same time, I COULD remember sharing some of his feelings when I was young and I also remember that it could be difficult at times to put those feelings in any kind of context…. and those feelings could often be overwhelming.

Ultimately, Chris McCandless's story left me full of sadness at the unnecessary tragedy that befell him.. and his family. After all, Chris McCandless's story WAS a tragedy. Just a few short months after walking into the Alaskan wilderness, some hikers discovered his body in an old abandoned Fairbanks City Transit System bus (#142). Taped to the door of the bus was a note…


"S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is NO JOKE. In the name of God, please
remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you. Chris McCandless, August 7?"


I found this story compelling and at the same time so very unnecessary and tragic. And although Mr. Krakauer did his best to describe the geography of the locations in the story, I found some of the details confusing as I'm unfamiliar with Alaskan geography. Perhaps this geographic confusion was better addressed in the print copy of this book. Regardless, I definitely recommend this book.

84th book of 2020.

S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU, CHRIS MCCANDLESS. AUGUST?



I’m unsure how to start this review; for the first time in a while, I’m finding it difficult to access my thoughts on this. I’ve got so much to say, but even after waiting a whole day, my thoughts are all scrambled in the wind. I’ll start with this. At 2am the other night I tapped the touch-lamp on my bedside table and opened my copy of Into the Wild – in pencil, I scrawled, “Literature Failed the Heroes in this Book.” It is pictured below. I then turned out my light, rolled over, and went to sleep.



I was born in 1997 – five years after Chris McCandless died. The note I used to start the review was found on the bus his body was in. He weighed about four stone. Jon Krakauer wrote an article about the 24 year old boy who died in Alaska, but his obsession held him longer, long enough to write this beautiful, horrible book. I am glad that he did. This book transcends being about McCandless.

One does not look have to look far to find people laughing at McCandless, calling him an idiot, or worst of all – “He deserved to die.” Ironically, comments like these, which have been wrenching my heart, came out my own brother’s mouth. Though my brother is one to speak rashly, and flippantly about things, he said to me over the dinner table, after I explained the book rather briefly, that it sounded like McCandless was an “idiot”. We are very unalike. My brother sees the world in black and white. He believes something or he doesn’t, there are no grey areas in his life. It was at the dinner table this happened, and when I opened my mouth, clearly some sort of fury or defiance in my eyes, my mother gave me the don’t eyes, the drop-it eyes. Chances are my brother said it only to get a rise out of me, though I think he partly believed what he was saying. McCandless, as far as he was aware, as far as many people are aware, went into Alaska with almost no equipment, no food, and little idea on what he was going to do. He survived 114 days.

Literature is Dangerous

I’ve been unpacking my little late-night scrawl. I awoke in the morning thinking, “Why the hell did I write that? What does that even mean?” I put it down to trying to be clever, 2am delusions. But, I’ve thought about it, and I now stand by my past, tired self. I do not mean that literature is to blame for McCandless’ death, or any of the other people in the book that Krakauer tells us about. What I mean to say, I think, is that they were failed by literature. Literature is dangerous. Book burnings show how intimidating books can be. Rushdie’s six-million pound bounty for writing The Satanic Verses is a modern day testament to the power of books, and the consequences of writing. It’s interesting to think that just about anyone, the most malleable of teenagers, can read books by mad philosophers, to take fiction literally. McCandless loved Jack London, Tolstoy, Thoreau. Krakauer takes us on a jaunt in his own life, when, a year younger than McCandless was in Alaska, he nearly lost his life climbing the Devils Thumb. He admitted to be on a high from reading too much Nietzsche and Kerouac – as if these were factors of his journey. They were. They were for McCandless too. Each chapter of this book starts with a quote, many of which are highlighted quotes from the paperbacks found with McCandless’ body, and many of them mirror the existence the young man was striving for. So, in way, literature inspired McCandless, Krakauer too, into searching for more meaning in life, for something bigger than themselves. To quote Kerouac, “Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” If that doesn’t make your heart swell with possibility, with ideas of escape, or living in fresh air and leaving behind this mundane 21st century life, then I don’t know what will. And if doesn’t, maybe that’s proof that terrifyingly, if I were less safe and secure in my home, if I lived in America, I could have been a McCandless, or a Krakauer, depending how lucky I was.

I’ve read a lot of Kerouac. I’m getting interested in spirituality, Buddhism, the soul, the nature world. Things that seem to steer me towards the life that the men in this book began striving for. Krakauer is impartial, though you can sense some to some degree a biased opinion, he is mostly removed from the book, leaving it entirely up to the reader to decide for themselves. He includes some of the comments he had, the negative, attacking ones. There are also arguments on my side of the fence: It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behaviour is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war: It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionary adaptive, a behaviour merely encoded in our genes. McCandless knew the risks, and Krakauer allows that he was arrogant too, he was unprepared, yes. His failings do not, cannot, outlive what McCandless was trying to do. A 24 year old man does not die to be remembered for his failings. At least, his words will be remembered.

It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.

Heroes in this Book

This book moved me so much is because of the parallels I have found, possibly projected, in McCandless. I am currently 23, just a year younger than he was. I have a love of literature, some say “obsessive” love, for literature. I am into the outdoors, I have been to many countries, I was in the scouts for most of my childhood, I adore camping and walking… I love the things that McCandless loves. And above all, I can imagine, as I have suggested, if I was less invested in my life here, I can picture myself doing something similar. Maybe not Alaska, and maybe not without supplies, or a map, but certainly walking out with grand (maybe naïve) ideas of transcendence found in the wilderness. Krakauer makes an important distinction: McCandless didn’t want to die, that much is clear from the S.O.S note. In the end, he must have known he was dying, which does pain me a little to admit that he was in that bus, dying, and he knew it. I won’t reveal all the heart-breaking notebook entries, but there are some which show that despite his situation, McCandless was happy. He had escaped civilisation; he was living a truer life than his hero, Jack London, even more than Tolstoy. They were hypocrites where McCandless wasn’t. He lived the life he wanted to live, he lived the life he chose to live. I couldn’t count the amount of people I know that I believe live lives of unfulfilled yearning. It is the most common thing in today’s society – with social media we constantly see lives that we think would be better, lives that we imagine for ourselves. Oh, to be more attractive. Oh, to be more famous. Oh, to be richer. We strive for lives that we can’t achieve, or else lives that we can’t be bothered to try and achieve. McCandless died with complete fulfilment in the life he wanted. He carved through the bullshit of life and reached the epicentre of his yearnings. His yearning was the death of him. But I dare say that he died having fulfilled himself, more than most of the people I know in my own life. Possibly, more than I will ever be able to fulfil my own life.

That is why I call the people in this book “Heroes.” The photo in this review is one of McCandless' final acts - one hand holding his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave, beatific farewell. Krakauer goes on to say this, of the photograph: But if he pitied himself in those last difficult hours- because he was so young, because he was alone, because his body had betrayed him and his will had let him down- it's not apparent from the photograph. He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God. Or as McCandless once wrote of himself in the third person, But his spirit is soaring.

Ah, nature. That lovely, peaceful place where we go for a few minutes or hours during a hike in the mountains or for a day or two during a camping trip. Just driving by the forests on the mountains of Utah, I so long to pull over on the side of the road, leave my car just as Chris McCandless did in Nevada, and journey into the wild.

Uh, yeah.

After reading this book, I realize that I have much to learn. I do believe that nature is gentle and yet the consequences of taking it lightly are predictable and fatal. I have thought much over the past year about leaving behind the painfully stifling existence we have created for ourselves in American cities, corporations, and in our own homes. My first choice would be to live closer to nature, to work in nature, to sustain myself in nature. That is pretty funny when I think about it because I see little chance of surviving as a vegan in nature. Hmmm.

So this book, needless to say, was a real eye-opener for me. Chris McCandless was a fascinating young man in my humble opinion, and I do believe that those who criticized him for what they labelled his "hubris" for believing that he could wonder off on his own and survive in the barren wilds of Alaska are only projecting onto him the repressed longing within their own hearts for a more intimate relationship with the movements of our planet and the ecosystems it so wonderfully supports. Yet, this book was downright creepy to me in that Chris was a man who had excellent survival skills in the outdoors. He had been surviving on the road on his own for several years with brief interludes into town to work to make money for his next foray into the wilderness. He was no novice, and he was very intelligent and instinctual when it came to nature.

Still, he died.

I won't go into what brought about his end because Krakauer, in this narrative at his gripping best, weaves a dramatic piece of nonfiction that takes off running with the reader breathlessly following from one page to the next as we (reader and author) together attempt to comprehend the tragic conclusion of the life (in this form) of Christopher McCandless. But it revealed to me just how much I have to learn and understand about the wilderness if I expect to survive (in this form) out there on my own.

As for the work itself, as I said this is Krakauer at his best. His knack for using history to inform the present and putting together a complex and unflinching rendering of the lives of real people is, in my small experience with nonfiction, unmatched. In fact, before reading his work "Under the Banner of Heaven" last year, I had almost no use for nonfiction. Not anymore. His books are as good and as suspenseful and as real as any fiction I have read. (I know some may call say that phrase "real as any fiction" is oxymoronic, but true lovers of fiction know that it has produced some of the most honest expressions of reality - namely that all reality is subjective - of which humanity is capable.) If you love nonfiction, read this book. If your thing has always been fiction (like me), read this book. It will haunt you and it will inspire you.

For now, I go into the next book.

This book seems to divide people. One group seems to think McCandless was a visionary; a free-thinking, wild spirit who lived his dream and died an unfortunate, tragic death. The other group thinks he was a stupid kid; an ill-prepared daydreamer who brought his demise upon himself due to his own idiocy.

I think it's entirely possible he was both. In my experience, the two states are not mutually exclusive. The one thing that's clearly true is that his death was avoidable and tragic. Whichever camp you fall into, this is an upsetting tale.

What also upsets me is that, due to the media picking up on this case, with various newspaper and magazine articles being written about it, a movie being made and (the surefire win for anyone looking to be a teenage martyr) a soundtrack album being recorded by hipster messiah Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, McCandless is being promoted as an inspirational figure for impressionable young people.

I can only hope that they will take this sad tale onboard as a cautionary tale, rather than one to emulate.

Have you ever seen Alone on the History channel?

Well, my husband and I love that show.

It’s gritty, hard and you cannot be weak to live in nature by yourself. The solitude will eventually drive you insane, an injury will take you out of the competition, or you’ll starve to death.

Chris McCandless did his own version of Alone but without the fame or money. His idealism and attitude were a force of nature for such a young man.

But his age and lack of common sense on many things about living in the wild, brought about his downfall.

When I went into this book, Into the Wild, I knew that I wanted to be as nonjudgmental and objective as I could be with this true story.

I knew that Chris was young when he died (age 24) in the wild of Alaska.
I too was young, reckless, and stupid when I was his age, so I went into this true-life story in a different frame of mind. We also have the same birth date so I really wanted to know what was up with this guy!!
Like Chris when I was in my 20s, I would look for adventure, life experiences and went off half-cocked most of the time.
I was like Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer in many ways.

Maybe that’s why Jon Krakauer felt the need to write this story since he almost died in the wilderness at an early age.
I think that’s why we're both not judging him too harshly for his lack of preparedness or not understanding how savage nature is.
Death did the judging for both of us.

Case in point:
John Muir also lived life on his own terms, was obsessed with nature and believed in environmental pursuits. Muir is now idealized, there's tons of quotes on the internet by him, and he's considered the "Father of the National Parks".
I'm not saying Chris is exactly like John Muir, but they do have a strong desire to live in nature, along with believing in a minimalist lifestyle.

Being older, I look at Chris's tale as one of caution.

I have been out in the wild many times living in the Pacific Northwest.
Not only is nature and the wilderness beautiful and breathtaking, but it’s also a bitch.

You must be prepared for all situations involving weather, wild predators, injuries, and possible starvation. I can’t tell you how many times a year that a hiker(s) up here in the PNW go missing. Or someone else ends up dead trying to scale that huge and spectacular mountain that darkens my doorstep.

Did Chris McCandless live life on his own terms?
I do believe he did.

Did Chris regret how things went down at the end along with not bringing a map with him or more survival gear?!
Yes. I think he regretted his decision in the end along with not understanding how brutal Alaska is.

I guess in closing, we can look at this tale of Into the Wild as not only a story of caution. It's also a story of living a full life and finding your own peace in this crazy and brutal world.

প্রকৃতির খুব কাছাকাছি থাকলে কেমন ফিল হতো তা বই পড়েই পেয়ে গেছি।
বই পড়ার পর মুভিটিও দেখে ফেলেছি চমৎকার একটি মুভি আপনারা যারা দেখেননি দেখে ফেলতে পারেন।
বই পড়লে বেশি ফিল পাবেন তবে মুভিটাও অনেক ভালো করেছে।

I first read Into the Wild ten years ago when it first came out after finding out that parts of it are set in Carthage, Miner County, South Dakota pop. 187, a town where my mother has family and where her cousin was once mayor. My great-grandmother is buried in Howard, the Miner county seat. So that was the book and movie’s initial appeal. I mean this town is the true “blink-and-you-miss-it” town. That is, if one would ever even happen to drive through it as it isn’t on a main road. So I wondered, how young Chris McCandless, the subject of the book and movie ended up in Carthage in the first place.

Then I read that Sean Penn was finally making a movie adapted from the book and filming in Carthage. I thought it would be really interesting to see Carthage on the big screen. The first day it was showing in our little theater here in town I Shanghaied my husband (who really isn’t a movie goer, in fact if you ask him, on a scale of 1-10, that he’d suggest going to a movie as a form of entertainment he’d probably tell you –2) into going with me for the matinee. Now John had seen the Oprah show where Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch (who portrays young McCandless in the film) were guests along with author Jon Krakauer and didn’t think too much of McCandless so he was even less excited than usual about seeing this film. If he had known ahead of time that it was 140 minutes long he’d probably had left the theater after his first carton of Milk Duds. But the trooper he is, he persevered for my sake.

The movie adequately told the story of young Christopher McCandless who after graduating from Emory University, took off on a two year road trip, calling himself Alexander Supertramp. Very early on his car was destroyed and he abandoned it, burned what little money he had left and took off on foot. Some one say he was idealist others an adventurer, but others just reckless. Everyone seems to have his or her own opinion. What is clear is that he was found two year later dead in an abandoned bus just north of Denali National Park in Alaska. However his adventures along the way and the people he met tell a very interesting story. And the just how he died is still fodder for speculation although Krakauer does give his theory. Hirsch as McCandless is wonderful – his portrayal deserves an Oscar nomination as does that of Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz, the elderly recluse who befriends him. Told mostly in flashbacks, the movie suffers from uneven editing. I was also disappointed in the cinematography—the Alaskan scenes could have been brilliant but they were just average. That said, the South Dakota prairie was breathtaking. And it was fun to see Carthage. I think the entire town was filmed.

After watching the movie, I was compelled to read the book again. At only 207 pages it’s a fairly quick read. It was even more meaningful after watching the movie. I read many passages out loud to my husband and told him I thought he might change his opinion of McCandless. He is now reading the book. I don’t have the absolutely negative opinion of young Chris as many people have. He was a bit reckless, that’s for sure. But no more than many young men. As Krakauer mentions late in the book, it’s that attribute of daring that contributes to many young men signing up for the military—particularly in times of war. Yes, he did some things wrong. But don’t we all. The only reason that we’re reading about him was that he made some little mistakes that ended up killing him. He was actually a smart kid and I found a lot in him to be admired. It was sad he had to die. Any loss of life is sad. And that is what bothers me the most. That a parent lost a child, that a sister lost a brother, that a world lost a promising young man. There are lessons to be learned here, of course, but was the price too great?

Well, now I know the story of Chris (AKA Alex Supertramp) McCandless.
Jon Krakauer was probably a good person to tell this story, being an avid outdoorsman with numerous trips to Alaska (some were also solo and remote).

Chris/Alex certainly did not want to die and his ultimate demise of starvation was an indirect consequence from storing some wet seeds improperly.

The saddest part of the whole story to me is that it is my belief his quest to go out on his own was his anger toward his father and unresolved as well as unrecognized family trauma.

On the outside looking in, this seems like another case of arrogant human vs unassuming nature. Nature usually wins that fight. It did here and in a most tragic way. And yet, in Into the Wild Jon Krakauer does an excellent job of muddying up the waters, so that they flow with the natural fluidity of life itself. Was this kid so very unprepared? Was this a foolhardy and unnecessary death easily avoided with a few, slight precautions? Life is seldom black and white, cut and dry. Krakauer reminds us of that, while telling a riveting story.

Da due anni cammina per il mondo. Niente telefono, niente piscina, niente animali, niente sigarette. Il massimo della libertà. Un estremista. Un viaggiatore esteta la cui dimora è la strada. Scappato da Atlanta. Mai dovrai fare ritorno perchè the west is the best. E adessso, dopo due anni a zonzo, arriva la grande avventura finale. L'apice della battaglia per uccidere l'essere falso dentro di sè e concludere vittoriosamente il pellegrinaggio spirituale. Dieci giorni e dieci notti di treni merci e autostop lo hanno portato fino al grande bianco del Nord. Per non essere mai più avvelenato dalla civiltà, egli fugge, e solo cammina per smarrirsi nelle terre estreme.
Alexader Supertramp
Maggio 1992

Così scriveva Chris McCandless, aka Alex Supertramp, quando si addentrò nella foresta in Alaska, per realizzare il suo sogno di vivere a contatto con la natura più pura, selvaggia ed estrema, non contaminata dalla società capitastico/consumistica della America di inizi anni '90 del Novecento...

Secondo libro di Krakauer che leggo e ho ritrovato quella scrittura così emozionante, già vissuta con la precedente lettura di "Aria sottile". Solo che qui in "Nelle terre estreme" Krakauer non ha vissuto l'avventura in prima persona, come in "Aria sottile". Quindi pensavo di trovare un saggio/biografia più scostante, al limite del freddo resoconto di viaggio. Invece l'autore mi ha ancora di più sbalordito per la capacità di immedesimarsi, senza però edulcorare la storia, ma aggiungendo un ingrediente, per me fondamentale, l'empatia verso una storia che Krakauer sente molto vicina.

Chris ragazzo di poco più di vent'anni, un giorno decide di lasciare la civiltà per come è, quindi egoista, gerarchica, monotona, sedentaria e soprattutto offuscata, obnubilata dalla sete di potere e di denaro e di lasciarsi cullare dalla natura selvaggia. Chris ragazzo a cui piace leggere Lev Tolstoj, Henry David Thoreau e Jack London, ne condivide le idee, i pensieri, lo sprezzo per l'avventura e la vita, lontana dal trambusto della civiltà industriale...
A dir poco, emozionante, ricco di spunti di riflessione, ricco di riferimenti letterari!

I was almost turned off this book by some of the GR reviews. I like reading reviews, but I’m glad I don’t care what other people think. I’m not a huge fan of non-fiction but, as far as I know, Jon Krakauer is an excellent non-fiction writer. I heard McCandless’ journey through Krakauer’s writing. I will probably pick up another one of his books.

I wonder sometimes why we react to fictional characters and non-fictional “characters” so differently. A person’s journey to find their truth and travel their road is not subject to other's approval. Do we criticize a fictional character’s integrity so easily? Do we call the WRITER immature, reckless? Are we appalled by his (the writer's) life choices to write such a character? He did divine his character, didn’t he?

I never judge an experience by the age of its experiencer. Do wisdom, maturity and insight come ONLY with age and experience? No. McCandless was young. He was a guy looking for his truth, living his life on his terms. He chose a different path. How is he any different than the other non-fiction “characters” in Krakauer’s books? We are all writing our own non-fiction stories. We are all our own fictional characters when we look back on our life, on our memories, on our life story. Krakauer writes Into the Wild from memories of McCandless life, from his research as a writer, and from his journey to discover McCandless' story. That, to me is fiction AND non-fiction brilliance. Real or imaginary we all write our own stories.

A few favorite thoughts from Into the Wild:

We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.

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.

Money makes people cautious.

n  "If this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again I want you to know you're a great man I now walk into the wild."n

Not often does a story make me put everything down for several minutes and deal with that lump in my throat. Not often does a story make me do that every time I cross paths with it. This one did. And yet I come back to it. Again and again.



It must have been five or six years since I first heard of Christopher Johnson McCandless. His story is easily told: In April 1992, the young man from a well-to-do East Coast family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mr. McKinley after burning, donating and leaving behind most of his possessions. Four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters.

So what has happened?

That's exactly the question Jon Krakauer is answering in this biography, a follow-up to his article published in Outside magazine in 1993, which polarised the readership. While many claimed him a hero and a brave risk-taker, others would call him selfish, reckless and foolish. For me, his story came at a time where I started to ask many questions myself and because I was able to resonate so strongly with him and his story, it remains one I hold very, very dear.



Jon Krakauer does an astonishingly brilliant job at giving insight into what kind of person Chris McCandless was through various interviews, journal entries, researches and letters; also drawing comparison to other adventurers who found themselves in similar situations. Krakauer's empathy for his subject made this biography a pleasure to read, it felt like he really turned every coin twice before jumping to any conclusions.

n  "He was an extremely intense young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence."n

Even those who fail to relate to Chris McCandless or his way of thinking can't deny his intelligence. His way of looking at the world is one of the things that makes his story so compelling - he's not an pubertal teenager who set off because it might make him seem cool or rebellious. Chris was willing to take risks in order to do what he honestly and truly believed in.



He was smart, passionate about nature, critical about money and possession, constantly questioning his surroundings and circumstances. He was very to himself, a private person, who could be alone without being lonely, yet he was never an outsider in that way - "he always had friends, and everybody liked him." Even on his journey into the wild he has touched and affect almost every people he encountered. After leaving the 80-year old Ronald, he wrote him a letter, in which he gave him advice and said the following:

n  "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."n

Into the Wild is a book you might love, it is a book you might hate, but it is impossible to get to know a person like Christopher McCandless through Jon Krakauer's words and stay unaffected.