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Into the Wild

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Name: Into the Wild: Jon Krakauer: 9780385486804: Amazon.com: Books
Price: 8.69 USD
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Rating: 4.4 (21336 reviews)

Jon Krakauer

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Into the Wild Paperback – February 1, 1997

by Jon Krakauer (Author)

4.4 21,336 ratings

in Survival Biographies

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die.

"It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment Weekly

McCandess 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. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world’s attention.

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 drives and desires that propelled McCandless.

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. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

From the Publisher

the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn'tcannotanswer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.

Review

"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

"Compelling and tragic ... Hard to put down."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Engrossing ... with a telling eye for detail, Krakauer has captured the sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man."
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order."
—Entertainment Weekly

From the Publisher

"Terrifying...Eloquent...A heart-rending drama of human yearning."
--New York Times

"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

"Compelling and tragic...Hard to put down."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Engrossing...with a telling eye for detail, Krakauer has captured the sad saga of a stubborn, idealistic young man."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order."
--Entertainment Weekly

From the Inside Flap

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 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.

From the Back Cover

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 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 irreversibleand fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naivete, 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.

About the Author

JON KRAKAUER is the author of eight books and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. According to the award citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

THE ALASKA INTERIOR

April 27th, 1992

Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you shall hear from me, Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here.

Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return South. 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. --Alex.

(Postcard received by Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota.)

Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn. He didn't appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at most. A rifle protruded from the young man's backpack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the forty-ninth state. Gallien steered his truck onto the shoulder and told the kid to climb in.

The hitchhiker swung his pack into the bed of the Ford and introduced himself as Alex. "Alex?" Gallien responded, fishing for a last name.

"Just Alex," the young man replied, pointedly rejecting the bait. Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be twenty-four years old and said he was from South Dakota. He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and "live off the land for a few months."

Gallien, a union electrician, was on his way to Anchorage, 240 miles beyond Denali on the George Parks Highway; he told Alex he'd drop him off wherever he wanted. Alex's backpack looked as though it weighed only twenty-five or thirty pounds, which struck Gallien--an accomplished hunter and woodsman--as an improbably light load for a stay of several months in the backcountry, especially so early in the spring. "He wasn't carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you'd expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip," Gallien recalls.

The sun came up. As they rolled down from the forested ridges above the Tanana River, Alex gazed across the expanse of windswept muskeg stretching to the south. Gallien wondered whether he'd picked up one of those crackpots from the lower forty-eight who come north to live out ill-considered Jack London fantasies. Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing.

"People from Outside," reports Gallien in a slow, sonorous drawl, "they'll pick up a copy of Alaska magazine, thumb through it, get to thinkin' 'Hey, I'm goin' to get on up there, live off the land, go claim me a piece of the good life.' But when they get here and actually head out into the bush--well, it isn't like the magazines make it out to be. The rivers are big and fast. The mosquitoes eat you alive. Most places, there aren't a lot of animals to hunt. Livin' in the bush isn't no picnic."

It was a two-hour drive from Fairbanks to the edge of Denali Park. The more they talked, the less Alex struck Gallien as a nutcase. He was congenial and seemed well educated. He peppered Gallien with thoughtful questions about the kind of small game that live in the country, the kinds of berries he could eat--"that kind of thing."

Still, Gallien was concerned. Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior, which in April still lay buried under the winter snowpack. Alex's cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road map he'd scrounged at a gas station.

A hundred miles out of Fairbanks the highway begins to climb into the foothills of the Alaska Range. Alex pulled out his crude map and pointed to a dashed red line that intersected the road near the coal-mining town of Healy. It represented a route called the Stampede Trail. Seldom traveled, it isn't even marked on most road maps of Alaska. On Alex's map, nevertheless, the broken line meandered west from the Parks Highway for forty miles or so before petering out in the middle of trackless wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. This, Alex announced to Gallien, was where he intended to go.

Gallien thought the hitchhiker's scheme was foolhardy and tried repeatedly to dissuade him: "I said the hunting wasn't easy where he was going, that he could go for days without killing any game. When that didn't work, I tried to scare him with bear stories. I told him that a twenty-two probably wouldn't do anything to a grizzly except make him mad. Alex didn't seem too worried. 'I'll climb a tree' is all he said. So I explained that trees don't grow real big in that part of the state, that a bear could knock down one of them skinny little black spruce without even trying. But he wouldn't give an inch. He had an answer for everything I threw at him."

Gallien offered to drive Alex all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go.

"No, thanks anyway,"Alex replied, "I'll be fine with what I've got."

Gallien asked whether he had a hunting license.

"Hell, no," Alex scoffed. "How I feed myself is none of the government's business. Fuck their stupid rules."

When Gallien asked whether his parents or a friend knew what he was up to--whether there was anyone who would sound the alarm if he got into trouble and was overdue Alex answered calmly that no, nobody knew of his plans, that in fact he hadn't spoken to his family in nearly two years. "I'm absolutely positive," he assured Gallien, "I won't run into anything I can't deal with on my own."

"There was just no talking the guy out of it," Gallien remembers. "He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn't wait to head out there and get started."

Three hours out of Fairbanks, Gallien turned off the highway and steered his beat-up 4 x 4 down a snow-packed side road. For the first few miles the Stampede Trail was well graded and led past cabins scattered among weedy stands of spruce and aspen. Beyond the last of the log shacks, however, the road rapidly deteriorated. Washed out and overgrown with alders, it turned into a rough, unmaintained track.

In summer the road here would have been sketchy but passable; now it was made unnavigable by a foot and a half of mushy spring snow. Ten miles from the highway, worried that he'd get stuck if he drove farther, Gallien stopped his rig on the crest of a low rise. The icy summits of the highest mountain range in North America gleamed on the southwestern horizon.

Alex insisted on giving Gallien his watch, his comb, and what he said was all his money: eighty-five cents in loose change. "I don't want your money," Gallien protested, "and I already have a watch."

"If you don't take it, I'm going to throw it away," Alex cheerfully retorted. "I don't want to know what time it is. I don't want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters."

Before Alex left the pickup, Gallien reached behind the seat, pulled out an old pair of rubber work boots, and persuaded the boy to take them. "They were too big for him," Gallien recalls. "But I said, 'Wear two pair of socks, and your feet ought to stay halfway warm and dry.'"

"How much do I owe you?"

"Don't worry about it," Gallien answered. Then he gave the kid a slip of paper with his phone number on it, which Alex carefully tucked into a nylon wallet.

"If you make it out alive, give me a call, and I'll tell you how to get the boots back to me."

Gallien's wife had packed him two grilled-cheese-and-tuna sandwiches and a bag of corn chips for lunch; he persuaded the young hitchhiker to accept the food as well. Alex pulled a camera from his backpack and asked Gallien to snap a picture of him shouldering his rifle at the trailhead. Then, smiling broadly, he disappeared down the snow-covered track. The date was Tuesday, April 28, 1992.

Gallien turned the truck around, made his way back to the Parks Highway, and continued toward Anchorage. A few miles down the road he came to the small community of Healy, where the Alaska State Troopers maintain a post. Gallien briefly considered stopping and telling the authorities about Alex, then thought better of it. "I figured he'd be OK," he explains. "I thought he'd probably get hungry pretty quick and just walk out to the highway. That's what any normal person would do."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor Books; 1st edition (February 1, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385486804
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385486804
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1270L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.51 x 7.95 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Survival Biographies
- #2 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
- #6 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

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4.4 21,336 ratings

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Jon Krakauer

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In 1999 Jon Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. According to the award citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

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Customers find the story compelling, exciting, and thought-provoking. They praise the writing quality as well-crafted, easy to read, and conversational. Readers appreciate the author's biography and insights into his own experiences. Opinions differ on the sadness and enthralling aspect of the book. Some find it sad and bittersweet, while others consider it tragic.

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1,012 customers mention "Story quality"1,012 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the compelling story and find it stimulating. They describe it as an exciting read with a fascinating premise. The author's work easily captivates readers and they appreciate the unwavering spirit of adventure.

"...Jon is a wonderful author and his work easily captivates readers. I found myself struggling to put down the book as I just wanted to keep going." Read more

"...That same storyline is also very controversial. This book is a real live story of a real kid running away from home and trying to survive in the..." Read more

"...It's a fascinating, gripping read. If I could give it 6 starts, I would." Read more

"Great story had it referred to me and I bought it. I do like to buy used books so I bought a used one...." Read more

323 customers mention "Writing quality"254 positive69 negative

Customers enjoy the book's writing style. They find it engaging and easy to read, with a conversational tone. Readers appreciate the author's straightforwardness and humility, which allows them to relate easily. While the book is fast-paced, it takes its time to explain Chris's adventures and describe his life.

"...Jon is a wonderful author and his work easily captivates readers. I found myself struggling to put down the book as I just wanted to keep going." Read more

"...while generally in the whole book Krakauer wrote very well, including all the details, I felt as if that he didn't fully explain why Chris hated his..." Read more

"...There's a down-to-earth straightforwardness and humbleness that is really engaging and also endearing...." Read more

"The story of Chris McCandless and his fatal trip into wild Alaska is simple and straightforward...." Read more

322 customers mention "Thought provoking"296 positive26 negative

Customers find the book enlightening and inspiring. It provides a deep understanding of one's environment and offers a treatise on how to truly live. The author beautifully shares facts and opinions, making it one of the most moving and resonating books they've read.

"...This book, though a real, non-fiction, story, can teach a lesson- but which lesson is being taught by the book will vary from reader to reader...." Read more

"...What Krakauer excels at developing is motive, taking us into the mind of this young man..." Read more

"...straightforwardness and humbleness that is really engaging and also endearing...." Read more

"...More than a story. It is a treatise on how to truly live, and if one can shed the programming of this construct for even the few short hours of this..." Read more

71 customers mention "Author biography"71 positive0 negative

Customers find the author's biography engaging. They appreciate the author's attention to detail and how he weaves his own experiences into the narrative. The author does a good job of trying to understand what made this young man do what he did. The story is told with care and grace by the author, who also provides an insightful account of Chris McCandless' life and death.

"...young adult's life, and people he meets on his journey, the part biography, part non-fiction, part case study book "Into The Wild" is anything but a..." Read more

"...What Jon Krakauer does in this thoughtfully constructed biography is detail not only Chris's two year adventure into solitude, but the reasons..." Read more

"...He picked up odd jobs and made friends with his honest, kind personality...." Read more

"...one of my favorite books, while Krakauer has been one of my favorite nonfiction writers. I read his other book Into Thin Air and it's just as good...." Read more

193 customers mention "Sadness"86 positive107 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story. Some find it interesting and heartwarming, while others feel it's sad and the loss of a young life is pointless. The ending leaves them feeling frustrated and lingering sadness.

"...that unlike the characters in Into Thin Air, I had very little sympathy or warm feeling for the protagonist of this book, Into the Wild, and no..." Read more

"...and of course his opinions too, regarding this very real, very tragic death of a young man." Read more

"...and, while I enjoyed it, I found it strangely empty in parts and not as poignant as I would have wanted it to be...." Read more

"...Both the book and the film are marvelously done; the result is a mesmerizing reverie on the difficulty of establishing and sustaining deep,..." Read more

97 customers mention "Enthralling"61 positive36 negative

Customers find the book engaging and insightful. They appreciate the depth of the writing style and meaningful relationships. However, some readers find it repetitive and boring after the first half.

"...should be read with an open mind, being that it is a confusing, but deep, book...." Read more

"...slower, after the initial blow of Chris’ passing there is a lull watching his journey...." Read more

"...There's a down-to-earth straightforwardness and humbleness that is really engaging and also endearing...." Read more

"...mistakes (and he was very stubborn) but he was an extremely smart, funny, sensitive young man who was aggravated by society and almost incensed at..." Read more

85 customers mention "Pacing"38 positive47 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some find it gripping and thought-provoking, with suspense that never lags. Others feel the work lacks the immediacy and intimacy of Into Thin Air and is slow going.

"...It's hard to keep pace, but if you do, you'll understand the book the way it's meant to be...." Read more

"...The book reads fast and is a joy to read. Ill give you some tidbits to wet your appetite without ruining the story...." Read more

"...From there it goes a bit slower, after the initial blow of Chris’ passing there is a lull watching his journey...." Read more

"...The book, in my opinion, was well written and held me fast to my seat, given the subject matter...." Read more

74 customers mention "Personality"45 positive29 negative

Customers have different views on the personality. Some find the book explores the character's mindset and ego well, depicting hubris in young adulthood. Others feel it lacks character development and idolizes the character too much.

"...There's a down-to-earth straightforwardness and humbleness that is really engaging and also endearing...." Read more

"...NOT because of the writing, but because the main character is such a prat...." Read more

"...His sentence structures are compact and chunky, replete with grandiose adjectives and metaphors and an excitement for the subject that Krakauer is..." Read more

"...It’s not why I bought the book. It’s an interesting display of ego that one doesn’t expect when reading about this young men’s..." Read more

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Aaron Johnson
Love this book.
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2025
Verified Purchase

This and ‘Into Thin Air’ by the same author have been two of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I know they’ve been out a long time but I was late to the party. Jon is a wonderful author and his work easily captivates readers. I found myself struggling to put down the book as I just wanted to keep going.

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Dov Guggenheim's review
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
Into The Wild- Jon Krakauer

Dov Guggenheim

When a teenager picks up a book that is seemingly on his reading level, the suspected genre is usually either fiction, non-fiction, or science fiction. One would also suspect the book to be one storyline, a plot that involves a main character, a conflict, and how the conflict was resolved. "Into The Wild" is absolutely none of this. Into the wild does have a main character, Christopher McCandless, who decides to leave a life with many advantages, lots of money, and a college degree, to go into the wild. But that is the only similarity. From case studies, to the exciting twists and turns of a rebellious young adult's life, and people he meets on his journey, the part biography, part non-fiction, part case study book "Into The Wild" is anything but a normal book.

"Into The Wild" is a book relating to the story of Christopher McCandless(who changes his name to Alex Supertramp), a well-to-do man who recently graduated from Emory University. His father, Walt, always pressures him to be perfect, and Christopher hates his father and everything about him, like his constant, imprudent chase of material happiness, and having two simultaneous relationships- one with his ex-wife, and one with Christopher's mother, Billie. After some time, Christopher donates all of his money, leaves a family that loves him, and leaves behind almost all of his possessions to leave to an Alaskan wilderness with just a gun, some bullets, some rice, and some basic survival books. He meets many people along the way, including a woman named Jan, who becomes his mother figure( her son had also abandoned her- she encourages Christopher to go back home, or at least tell his parents what he's up to and accept some items for well-being- take this passage as an example of her personality- "Have you let your people know what you're up to? Does your mom know you're going to Alaska? Does your dad know?... I'd keep at it until he'd change the subject, though- because of what happened between me and my own son. He's out there somewhere, and I'd want someone looking after him like I looked after Alex), a man named Ronald, who takes him in as a son and gives him work, shelter, food, and other living qualities, and other certain charecters. Christopher is always moving, and he dies over one hundred days after he left. Many people judge this whole ordeal negatively, but Krakauer makes sure to mention in his author's note "I will leave it to the reader to form his or her own opinion of Chris McCandless"- that you should have your opinion of this whole episode.

This book is a very unique book, so that being said, it's memorable, and the content of this book can be perceived as instructive. The whole kid running away from home storyline and the multiple opinions and interviews definitely portray some instructive points regarding rebellious actions. That same storyline is also very controversial. This book is a real live story of a real kid running away from home and trying to survive in the wilderness with basically nothing, and this garnered a lot of opinions of Chris, mostly negative. So although maybe this whole situation is hard to imagine, it's very possible we'll know (or become) someone like this. But the book itself was written very well and portrayed in a fairly unbiased manner, leaving yourself to make an opinion of your own.

Another reason this book is so good is that even though there is very little suspense( anybody can figure out in the beginning of the book that in the end, Christopher dies) the book is so well written that the whole story line is very gripping. Krakauer attempts to go back in the past and see what made Chris perish.

There a few negatives to the book, though. First off, it's confusing. The whole story constantly is in flux, changing characters, scene, and point of view. It's hard to keep pace, but if you do, you'll understand the book the way it's meant to be. The problem is, if you don't, you might get some wrong ideas, and those are never good. Also, while generally in the whole book Krakauer wrote very well, including all the details, I felt as if that he didn't fully explain why Chris hated his parents so much that he abandoned his life. In fact, he almost made Chris seem as if he was a kid who wanted nothing to do with his parents for no good reason, and if Chris was as smart as he was, I'm sure there was a reason- this lack of detail can lead you to think Chris made a very dumb decision in leaving, which many people do, but Krakauer doesn't. Had he further detailed Chris's relationship with his parents, and why it was so bad, I'm sure it would be easier to see why Chris left.

This book, though a real, non-fiction, story, can teach a lesson- but which lesson is being taught by the book will vary from reader to reader. Chris obviously wanted to leave his family, and it's mentioned that he left in response to his father's imprudence. He leaves behind everything he knows, and meets people along his journey, but eventually dies. Different studies are brought in that are similar to this story. So what lesson is to be taught from this whole book( which is really a lot of different, relating stories, in one binding.)? That should you act rebelliously, bring more items and be better prepared and educated? That you should not act rebelliously at all? Krakauer insists Chris did nothing wrong, but others say it was foolish and arrogant of him to ditch everything and go into the wild. What's your opinion? Was it Chris's fault he died? Or did nature simply roll some bad dice on his turn? Different lessons and opinions can be formed from such a deep, controversial, real life topic.

In my personal opinion, this book was a great book and taught me a lot. Many people, including myself, have this nagging feeling once in awhile that they should just pick up and leave, start a new life somewhere else as a new person. This book talks about different cases in which, to a degree, this happened. It taught me that you can go into the wild on your own, but you need to be very well educated on where you're going, camping, survival, etc., and also that not everyone can do it. But again, this book can be understood in several different manners. This is a book that should be read with an open mind, being that it is a confusing, but deep, book. That being said, unless you have completed your pursuit of happiness and that you are completely happy with how your life is and you want your life to stay exactly how it is, every single teenager with a good reading comprehension should read this book. It'll change how you perceive a lot of things in life, including that little rebellious phase teenagers go through that adults like to call the adolescent phase.

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Mike Victor
Fantastic book, exquisitely well-written.
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2015
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Whatever you think about the subject of the book, Krakauer's telling of the story, weaving in his own and parallel narratives of young men gripped by a desire to test themselves by walking into the wild, is so masterful that it would be hard not to be mesmerized. When addressing the question of whether McCandless was suicidal, the author draws on his own adventure climbing Devil's Thumb:

"At that stage of my youth, death remained as abstract a concept as non-Euclidean geometry or marriage. I didn’t yet appreciate its terrible finality or the havoc it could wreak on those who’d entrusted the deceased with their hearts. I was stirred by the dark mystery of mortality. I couldn’t resist stealing up to the edge of doom and peering over the brink. The hint of what was concealed in those shadows terrified me, but I caught sight of something in the glimpse, some forbidden and elemental riddle that was no less compelling than the sweet, hidden petals of a woman’s sex. In my case— and, I believe, in the case of Chris McCandless— that was a very different thing from wanting to die."

The quotations from Thoreau to Tolstoy to Jack London (usually sections found highlighted by Chris McCandless) place what could have been a pathetic, self-absorbed adventure gone terribly wrong into a much larger context, making it all start to make sense by the end of the book.

"...suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself. There was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgment you respected. At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute— life or truth or beauty— of being ruled by it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than you had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good.
"BORIS PASTERNAK, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO PASSAGE HIGHLIGHTED IN ONE OF THE BOOKS FOUND WITH CHRIS MCCANDLESS’S REMAINS."

I do not share McCandless's obsession with "the wild" but like most of us with a Y chromosome, I can relate at some primitive level. Our species evolved because of our extraordinary curiosity and desire to roam. Our ancestors all walked out of Africa only a few hundred thousand years ago and we have been walking ever since. The idea that there is nothing untamed left to explore or experience offends us somehow. McCandless took this idea to a ridiculous, tragic extreme, but it's hard not to respect the spirit driving him even if we can shake our heads at his naïveté.
There are more questions than answers about this young man and his demise - did he realize he wasn't really in the wild after all but a few miles from a major highway? was he the one who vandalized and trashed the nearby well-stocked cabins? what exactly did he eat that may have so suddenly incapacitated him after he had survived so long on his own wits (and firearms)? had he survived, would he have returned home and reconciled with his family, having answered whatever burning question he had to answer on his own?
I feel that Krakauer is inviting us into a crime scene. We have a body, some clues, but so many more questions. What Krakauer excels at developing is motive, taking us into the mind of this young man (who the author annoyingly refers to as a "boy" although he was approaching his mid-twenties) and walking us through his final days.
It's a fascinating, gripping read. If I could give it 6 starts, I would.

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Susan R. Ventura
Great read
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2025
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Great story had it referred to me and I bought it. I do like to buy used books so I bought a used one. It was a couple bucks less and that’s great because once you’re done everything, what do you do with it? I just passed it on good story.

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Julien
Life Changing
Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2025
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I love how this book goes much deeper than the movie into his reality. It really shows us how unprepared he really was. Although I can relate to him on many things, I can clearly see with this book that what he needed was a stable loving family. Rest In Peace Christopher J. McCandless.

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Julien

Life Changing

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2025
I love how this book goes much deeper than the movie into his reality. It really shows us how unprepared he really was. Although I can relate to him on many things, I can clearly see with this book that what he needed was a stable loving family. Rest In Peace Christopher J. McCandless.

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ALEJANDRA LORENA RODRIGUEZ DELGADO
LIBRO
Reviewed in Mexico on August 25, 2023
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EXCELENTE

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Ricardo
Chegou rápido
Reviewed in Brazil on August 4, 2023
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Chegou em 48 horas na embalagem certa e em ótimas condições.

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G
Gio
Reviewed in Italy on September 14, 2024
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Mi sono imbattuto nel libro solo dopo aver visto il film omonimo con Sean Penn, ma devo dire che leggere il libro mi ha fatto sentire ancora più empatia con la storia di Christopher e con la sua personalità, anche grazie a tanti piccoli aspetti che nel film non vengono menzionati. Questo libro ti fa capire cosa conti veramente nella vita e il senso di essa.

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SDW
Super lecture
Reviewed in France on August 8, 2024
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Très bien écrit, je cherchais justement la version en anglais.
Frappant comme le film

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5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Dov Guggenheim's review

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, exquisitely well-written.

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Love this book.

Dov Guggenheim's review

Fantastic book, exquisitely well-written.

Great read

Life Changing

LIBRO

Chegou rápido

Gio

Super lecture