Into the Wild

I've been a fan of Jon Krakauer for a long time and attended a reading of his at a Minneapolis, Minnesota bookstore more than 10 years ago, not long after Into the Wild was first published. At the reading, Krakauer tried to explain what drives people to want to climb mountains or walk across a desert or go off into the wilderness to live off the land--a drive I don't pretend to have or understand--but his enthusiasm for the subject matter was very alluring and I've read everything he's written since then. I don't understand why Chris McCandless would want to chuck everything in his life and head off into the wilderness, but I do admire that at the end, he didn't expect his parents or anyone else to save him, but simply accepted that he'd made the choices that put him in the unenviable situation of dying by starvation, and that's the way it goes. In a day and age when teenagers are killing each other--literally!!--and then expecting mom and dad to bail them out of trouble, it is at least refreshing to know there was one kid who apparently took responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Into the Wild is a mystery that Krakauer tells very well, and Philip Franklin's reading of the book is excellent.

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 b......more

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......more

The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure.Christopher Johnson McCandless began roaming in 1991 after graduating college. He gave away his savings ($25,000) to charity, got rid of all his material possessions, burned his remaining money and just left.......more

I love Jon Krakauer. I didn't find one single thing about the Alex McCandless even remotely interesting. He came across as a spoiled brat with no concept of reality - basically because of his priveleged upbringing. But somehow, he blamed his parents for that void of myopic self absorption. I live in......more