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.
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 interest 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 storytelling blaze through every page.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
San Francisco Chronicle
Compelling and tragic...Hard to put down.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Engrossing...with a telling eye for detail, Krakauer has
captured the sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man.
San Francisco Chronicle
Compelling and tragic...Hard to put down.
Entertainment Weekly
It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Engrossing...with a telling eye for detail, Krakauer has
captured the sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man.
New York Times
Terrifying...Eloquent...A heart-rending drama of human yearning.
New York Times
Terrifying...Eloquent...A heart-rending drama of human yearning.
Washington Post
A narrative of arresting force. Anyone who ever fancied wandering off to face nature on its own harsh terms should give a look. It's gripping stuff.
Washington Post
A narrative of arresting force. Anyone who ever fancied wandering off to face nature on its own harsh terms should give a look. It's gripping stuff.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by AAC SUPER BORING!! I was suppose to read this for English but really only read a couple of chapters. the beginning was alright but after that I just had to stop reading it. I was not interested in how this guy met lots of people and hitchhiked to Alaska to be away... Read More
Rated of 5
by ema-lee A novel-lovers dream This book, Into the wild, is a fascinating, amazing, beautifully written, a novel lovers dream. While reading this book, the many emotions make it like you were living it, like it was your hopes, dreams and adventures. However I must say that this... Read More
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A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
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New York Times
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