Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
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Book Reviews of Into the Wild
Book Review: Excerpted quotes from Ranger Peter Christian
Summary: 3 Stars
Excerpted quotes from Ranger Peter Christian are from a document available at George Mason University (pasted below):
Chris McCandless from an Alaska Park Ranger's Perspective
by Peter Christian
Both Chris McCandless and I arrived in Alaska in 1992. We both came to Alaska from
the area around Washington, D.C. We were both about the same age and had a similar
idea in mind; to live a free life in the Alaska wild. Fourteen years later Chris McCandless
is dead and I am living the dream I set out to win for myself. What made the difference
in these two outcomes?
There was nothing heroic or even mysterious about what Chris McCandless did in April
1992. Like many Alaskans, I read Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild" when it first
came out and finished it thinking, "why does this guy rate an entire book?" The fact that
Krakauer is a great outdoor writer and philosopher is the bright spot and it makes a great
read, but McCandless was not something special.
As a park ranger both at Denali National Park, very near where McCandless died, and
now at Gates of the Arctic National Park, even more remote and wild than Denali, I am
exposed continually to what I will call the "McCandless Phenomenon." People, nearly
always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving
wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are
practically no nexistent. I know the personality type because I was one of those young
men.
In fact, Alaska is populated with people who are either running away from something or
seeking themselves in America's last frontier. It is a place very much like the frontier of
the Old West where you can come to and reinvent yourself. In reality, most people who
make it as far as Alaska never get past the cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage because
access is so difficult and expensive (usually by airplane), travel is so hard, the terrain is
challenging, the bears are real, and so on.
A very few competent and skillful people make a successful go at living a free life in the
wild, build a home in the mountains, raise their children there and eventually come back
with good stories and happy endings. A greater number give it a try, realize it is neither
easy nor romantic, just damn hard work, and quickly give up and return to town with
their tails between their legs, but alive and the wiser for it.
Some like McCandless, show up in Alaska, unprepared, unskilled and unwilling to take
the time to learn the skills they need to be successful. These quickly get in trouble and
either die by bears, by drowning, by freezing or they are rescued by park rangers or other
rescue personnel-but often, not before risking their lives and/or spending a lot of
government money on helicopters and overtime.
When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did
wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic and inconsiderate. First off, he spent
very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail
without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his
predicament using one of several routes that could have been successful. Consider where
he died. An abandoned bus. How did it get there? On a trail. If the bus could get into
the place where it died, why couldn't McCandless get out of the place where he died?
The fact that he had to live in an old bus in the first place tells you a lot. Why didn't he
have an adequate shelter from the beginning? What would he have done if he hadn't
found the bus? A bag of rice and a sleeping bag do not constitute adequate gear and
provisions for a long stay in the wilderness.
No experienced backcountry person would travel during the month of April. It is a time
of transition from winter's frozen rivers and hard packed snow with good traveling
conditions into spring's quagmire of mud and raging waters where even small creeks
become impassible. Hungry bears come out of their dens with just one thing in mind--
eating.
Furthermore, Chris McCandless poached a moose and then wasted it. He killed a
magnificent animal superbly conditioned to survive the rigors of the Alaskan wild then,
inexperienced in how to preserve meat without refrigeration (the Eskimos and Indians do
it to this day), he watched 1500 pounds of meat rot away in front of him. He's lucky the
stench didn't bring a grizzly bear to end his suffering earlier. And in the end, the moose
died for nothing.
So what made the difference between McCandless and I fourteen years ago? Why am I
alive and he is dead? Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide while I
apprenticed myself to a career and a life that I wanted more badly than I can possibly
describe in so short an essay. In the end I believe that the difference between us was that
I wanted to live and Chris McCandless wanted to die (whether he realized it or not). The
fact that he died in a compelling way doesn't change that outcome. He might have made
it work if he had respected the wilderness he was purported to have loved. But it is my
belief that surviving in the wilderness is not what he had in mind.
I did not start this essay to trash poor Chris McCandless. Not intentionally. It is sad that
the boy had to die. The tragedy is that McCandless more than likely was suffering from
mental illness and didn't have to end his life the way he did. The fact that he chose
Alaska's wildlands to do it in speaks more to the fact that it makes a good story than to
the fact that McCandless was heroic or somehow extraordinary. In the end, he was sadly
ordinary in his disrespect for the land, the animals, the history, and the self-sufficiency
ethos of Alaska, the Last Frontier.
Book Review: Truly a voyage
Summary: 3 Stars
An intriguing and thought provoking read. This book is more than just a biography or epilogue on the life of Chris McCandless. The author does a great job of tracing the last 2 years of McCandless' life while also setting other examples of man vs. wild at counterpoint.
Writing Style
Krakauer has a fabulous eye for detail, a great vocabulary, and his writing shows an intense passion for the outdoors. The descriptions of places, people and events were so vivid and engrossing that I feel as though I have a personal familiarity with many of the locations and events portrayed in the novel.
Even though Krakauer obviously has some of his own opinions and thoughts about the events, he did a fairly good job of presenting the work without too much intrusion of authorial bias. Actually, I felt that having Krakauer as author and narrator actually brought more to the story through his personal insights and bias. If the story was truly told by an absolutely non-biased author or by an author less passionately involved in the wilderness, I believe a lot would have been lost.
I also really enjoyed the use of quotations at the beginning of each chapter. Some of the quotations were pulled from passages found with McCandless while others were likely researched and input by Krakauer to add emphasis to his narrative.
Voice & Narrative
Krakauer's narrative voice was subtle and accessible and provided an excellent unobtrusive narrator for the course of the book. His passion for the outdoors in general and for hiking in particular was evident, especially in the chapters he devoted to his own experience.
At first I was taken slightly aback at the author's biographical interruption with his own climbing experience. On one hand, it felt somewhat egoistical to place himself in the same category as the numerous other anecdotal stories he had cited. As I thought more about it, however, it felt perfectly natural that he include his own experience. Firstly because the experience was just as good a parallel as any of the other stories he had researched and shared. Secondly, because it did expose the authorial bias that Krakauer did have towards McCandless and explained exactly how it was that the author truly could and did relate to the subject.
The Story
While there may have been times that Krakauer imposed some bits of fiction into the biography, he tries hard to present all of his writing either as fact based on findings or research or as his own opinion and he is careful to identify passages that are his opinion rather than documented fact. In a story such as this, there are times when educated opinions are the best we can hope for, and I think Krakauer presents himself as a viable source for potentially valid opinions.
While the central focus of the story is the last two years of Chris McCandless' life, that is not entirely the heart of the message.
As I started reading, I didn't know much about McCandless other than that he hiked out into Alaska and was found dead a few months later. I'd read some Jack London in High School, but even then, I wasn't entirely sure how this story was going to become a full book. It was exciting to find that the book explored more than just his final days in Alaska. It provides a rich biography of a young man searching for something and having many exciting and interesting experiences along the way.
I enjoyed the biography of Chris' life. It's easy to look at him and call him a "whiner" and condemn him for not just accepting the "good life" that was handed to him on a silver platter. It's harder to pull back the layers and actually examine the motives that drove him to the behaviors and actions of his life and death. Krakauer does a good job of investigating his life thoroughly and exposing the impetus for his journeying.
Overall
I think the heart of the story was outlined towards the end of the book. At one point, Krakauer and some of his friends go to visit the bus where Chris was found. In that chapter and those around it, Krakauer explores the psyche and motivations of Chris McCandless.
To paraphrase my take-a-way, he seems to suggest that everyone has a desire for adventure, excitement and to conquer the unconquerable...to push ourselves to the limit and to find (and push beyond) the extent of our capabilities. Krakauer makes the point that as we mature into full adulthood, we tend to restrain the wreckless abandon of youth, but if we're honest with ourselves, we can look back to our youth and see our unbridled passions chomping at the bit for the next great adventure.
In the case of Chris McCandless (and numerous others described in the book), the adventurous spirit full of wanderlust and excitement was never restrained. And in the case of Chris, he took it beyond the teenage spirit of "fast driving", "raucous partying", or just plain "outrageous living." Chris McCandless pushed himself farther and harder because he had an insatiable desire to do so. Whether that is born of an innate desire to discover the greatness of the human soul or out of stifled inferiority complex in his life, we may never know and truly it doesn't matter.
While we shouldn't go out into the world and recklessly throw ourselves in the path of disaster, I think the heart of this book is telling us that we need to examine our behaviors and explore the limits we have imposed on ourselves. Some limits may truly exist for our safety and our own personal improvement. Others may simply exist because of fear and timidity. The latter should be tossed away so we can truly live.
***
3 stars
Book Review: Heroic or suicidal?
Summary: 5 Stars
John Krakauer's book got over 1,100 comments at Amazon.com and was made into a recent movie, so the story of Chris McCandless' death in the Alaska wilderness interests many.
I connect with the story in several ways, as follows:
1) A difficult father/son and inter-family dynamic can propel a young man on an outward "heroic journey." After college I moved 1500 miles from home partly from this desire to find an independent place apart from my extended family.
2) Young people often desire a taxing travel journey as a means to self discovery. I've known many young people who took extended solo trips and my own cross-country journey from after college was this kind of journey that included the desire for new experiences and risks.
3) The long-distance runner is accustomed to enduring pain in pursuit of victory. McCandless was a hard-core competitive runner who relished the challenge of enduring the accompanying pain in cross-country running. He refused to accept necessary survival equipment people offered him partly because he wanted to do things the hard way. Having run cross-country and track, I can relate to this "no pain, no gain" impulse.
4) The individual who confronts wild natural beauty in solitude can secure deep inner rewards. Many of my pivotal memories involve solitary experiences with nature, so I understand the draw of the solitary encounter with the wild.
5) Being destitute and at the mercy of circumstances allows us to connect with exhilarating experience - this weird juxtaposition of self-reliance and dependence on the kindness of strangers. I've experienced this several times when our car broke down far from civilization and people "miraculously" came along to help us.
6) Some kids are just wired differently than "normal." McCandless was strong-willed and refused to let anyone tell him what to do, especially his parents. He also thought he was smarter than others. Some people just make up their mind what they're going to do and nothing can deter them.
7) Some young people, for whatever reasons, reject societal values and mores. History reveals examples of people who share this solitary inclination: highly intelligent, injured by others, idealistic, on a mission. Krakauer mentions medeival Irish monks as fitting this category.
8. It is a quality of youth to think nothing is impossible and to be willing to take risks. Later in life after some risks have caused painful damage, we become more cautious and self-protective.
9. People who are intelligent and capable often find that success comes easy. They get used to having confidence that they can overcome any obstacle. The harder the challenge, the more they relish the opportunity.
So, I think McCandless had a mix of these qualities and characteristics, some positive and some detrimental. It's great to have confidence, so seek solitary connection with nature, to be willing to suffer pain and discomfort in the heroic journey. However, it is detrimental to be over-confident in refusing wise counsel.
Sometimes these qualities can become a dangerous mix - the ignorance of youth mixed with the over-confidence of youth often leads to trouble. It is the fortunate young man who makes it through to his 30's without suffering damage. But when the dangerous qualities are present in extremes, it is usually a prescription for disaster, as was the case for McCandless.
He was extreme in his cut-off from his family and from his past identity as an educated, comfortable, upper-middle-class person. He was extreme in his desire to do things the hard way, such as eating only rice for weeks at a time. He was extreme in refusing help or advice from people. His desire for solitary connection with the wild was extreme.
Apart from these extremes, he might have survived as a rugged outdoorsman like many rock climbers, skiers and mountaineers. However, his extremes led him to tackle an Alaska survival project that included no safety net. The result was almost predictable. Was McCandless' journey heroic or suicidal? I don't think it was intentionally suicidal, because I think he realized he was placing himself in a risky situation. He knew enough to know he could die if things went wrong.
He was smart enough to research hunting skills, but not smart enough or patient enough to gain actual hunting experience before placing his life at the mercy of his hunting abilities. He knew enough to take a gun, but not enough to know what kind of a gun was needed, much less how to be proficient in using a gun for survival.
I've seen profiles of survival fanatics in Alaska who actually do what McCandless attempted to do - they live alone by their wits in wild Alaska. But to succeed, these people first gain years of wide experience in all manner of survival skills. They learn what it takes to survive an Alaska winter before they launch out to attempt it. This preparation and survival seasoning us what McCandless lacked and thought he could do without. His hubris cost him his life.
Book Review: Heavy and haunting read, hard to put down though
Summary: 4 Stars
Jon Krakaur's Into the Wild chronicles the events of Chris McCandless journey out into Alaska, citing several sources and giving background into who the young man was, and why he decided to leave his family, give his entire saving to a charity, create a new identity for himself, and live "on his own." McCandless, whose journey into individualism and nature was somewhat influenced by classic authors such as Leo Tolstoy and Jack London, has a one-on-one experience with tramping from place to place, meeting strange people, and trying to make it alone out in the wild.
If there is one criticism, it is the trivial accounts from second-hand witnesses in the story from McCandless' background. I could see the areas where the author is trying to build background to who he was, but there are some parts where people are basically saying, "Yeah, I saw him once" and don't make much of a point. A little distracting from the story, and kind of makes the focus jump around a tad. Other than that, I found the information and story to be quite engrossing and factual, but in a somber, tragic way.
Some contend that Krakauer makes McCandless into some hero, which isn't the case. There are some moments where he appreciates McCandless' bold decision to go through this; however, this could be attributed mainly to the author's similar incident of going out into the wild. An objectivity is achieved in his narration and the facts he presents, but obviously he is going to bring in some of his own knowledge, and then fill in the gaps of some details that he can only speculate on. The young man drops hints to people about his "Alaskan odyssey", that he's going away "for some time" and many think he is a little over the top for trying this and even the author agrees at certain points. Inferences about who McCandless are investigated in accounts from witnesses, friends, relatives, and those who met him during his journey and the time prior. He is depicted as being reckless and compulsive, yet there were some noble things that Chris did in his life, like helping out the homeless and poverty-stricken people and not giving in to material needs. Still, his decision to make the trek to Alaska, and his disappearance, left his parents dismayed, upset, and alienated, which is unsettling.
A haunting part of Krakauer's novel is the section (ch 8 and 9) in which the author recounts several similar adventurists who went out and tried to be one with the Alaskan frontier. Krakauer uses these stories to point out that surely McCandless wasn't alone in his quest to sustain a solitary, natural existence, but also to show the obvious differences between these individuals. There is one story of a man who wound up killing himself rather than face certain starvation, pain and misery when he realizes he's used up his resources. In the subsequent chapter, Krakauer parallels McCandless with a venturous man from the 1930s, Everett Ruess, who went out in the wilderness, wrote acquaintances about the exhilarating experiences, and then vanished and was never heard from again.
And still, the author also readily identifies with the young man's quest. He relates his own tale of going out, being brash, and surviving out in the wild, but reflecting on this adventure and realizing that he was fortunate to be alive. He, like McCandless, didn't see eye to eye with his father, and also felt the rush of exploration in his spirit, but he takes time to rationale the distinction between being overly reckless and being independent.
The later chapters are dedicated to retracing the steps McCandless took a year after he was found (which was in August 1992). The author, and three colleagues, go to Fairbanks and survey the scene, trying to piece together not only how and why the young man went out there, but what led to his ultimate demise. Krakauer speculates on motives for the young man not trying to cross the river, or his ultimate decision to not have an accurate map during this exploration.
If you take this book in with some reflection, it will stay with you for awhile. Normally we don't reflect that much on common literature after reading, but being this is based on a true event, it makes you think about the meaning of life, and what the young man must have been thinking while out there in the wilderness.
The newer, edited version of Into the Wild has an epilogue which chronicles McCandless' family going out to the spot of the "magic bus," the place where McCandless set up camp during his time out in the Alaskan wilderness.
Into the Wild is tough to put down, but also solemn in its narration. It would be tough to read more than once just because you have to be in the right frame of mind, but still I'm glad that I did read it because I had heard so much about the story.
Book Review: amazing book; could have had more-than-amazing potential
Summary: 4 Stars
"So, there's this guy, and he decides to prance out into the uncivilised Alaskan bush, without even a compass. This is after doing away with $25,000, by the way. And, oh yeah, after a few months, we find him dead." Now, could this man's life story possibly be given any dignity, told without any implications of insanity?
Well, it would appear Jon Krakauer has managed to do just that.
While Christopher Johnson McCandless (or Alexander Supertramp--ahem, let "changed his name to sever ties with his family and earlier life" be added to his list of accomplishments) would likely be regarded by most as another of the cocky young men for whom hubris beckoned death, Into the Wild was a study into his mind, uncovering what complex motives drove him to take his fatal journey into the tundra. And no, delusions of invincibility were not included in these.
Coherent within a world where adolescents all too often play the daredevil, what with their propensity for tackle sports, heroin, and anarchism, it is all too easy to dismiss McCandless as another distressed youth lacking responsibility (not to mention rationality). But exactly what Krakauer did was to humanize this outdoorsy-magazine feature story, causing it to become more than a figure at which to poke fun. Reflecting the often deeply buried journeyman inside us all, this novel spun the tale of McCandless's life prior to his adventures; a life of academic excellence, parental skirmishes, bonding with pets; a life we can all too often relate to. Through this lens, we begin to understand Krakauer's argument: that while most men, us included, share wild, fantastical ideals as McCandless's (or should I say Supertramp's), few have the guts to live them out; that he wasn't juvenile; he was noble.
Am I beginning to sound redundant? Yeah, that is one thing. With only one real point being proven throughout these 203 pages, Krakauer's message may as well be burned into the reader's forebrain not even mid-way into the book. Because, truth be told, as fascinating as this one point is, I'm not sure any of us need to have it driven in a handful of times every chapter. I mean, sure, there are so many cases that work marvellously as evidence, but by the end what with all the repetition throughout, the book feels a tad dissatisfying, owing mainly to the fact that the reader doesn't feel like they've gotten anything out of it, not when all the "fresh" substance sort of begins its decline after the fourth chapter.
And it's not only due to a lack of variety in material that this insubstantial feeling arises from Into the Wild. For a theme suggested to be as universally applicable as this, surfacing from the covers will not bring more than a whim of inspiration. Sure, the novel was argumentative, and sure, it drew on our emotions, causing us to relate, but unfortunately Krakauer seems to have decided not to take his work just one step further, not including any passages that might cause us to alter our perspectives on life. We might understand what Krakauer's trying to say, but we're not pushed to agree. Simply put, we're given the ability to peer into McCandless/Supertramp's most intimate thoughts, but it still feels...distant, irrelevant.
Though at least we can peer into those most intimate thoughts. And this is where Krakauer excels. In examining not only McCandless/Supertramp's Alaskan odyssey, but also his childhood, school, and college life, we really do wind up understanding how his head works. It's like we've suddenly acquired an astounding amount of psychological insight and he's sitting in front of us, pouring out his thoughts, allowing us to read him like...an open book. Yeah. Into the Wild is that book. ...If you open it.
Though it is laden with much of the same horrific fascination that compels so many of us to "rubberneck" at multi-car-pileups on highways, I can't Into the Wild, really. I mean, it's great. But it's not for everyone--those who have already set their minds that I shouldn't even be recognising McCandless's chosen name in this review: you won't appreciate this book, if what you're seeking is a literary masterpiece. Those with borderline ADHD: you won't appreciate it at all, either. But everyone else...if you've an open mind, why not give it a try? It's something to pick p and flick through, to find some amazing excerpts but not necessarily devour cover to cover. It's absorbing to a point, but less for those who want to introduce themselves to this sort of mindset than for those who already feel some degree of understanding with McCandless/Supertramp.
But then, that category could include more people than you'd think. Because, let's face it, as Krakauer proves many times over, who hasn't at some point considered just...striding...into...the...wild?