Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
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Book Reviews of Into the Wild
Book Review: A good complement to a much better movie
Summary: 4 Stars
It's rare that I'm motivated to both read a book and watch the same movie, but the Into the Wild movie was so impressive that I checked this book out from the library as well. It fills in a lot of additional information in the storyline, but also has a few major shortcomings.
It was impressive to see the book elaborate so much on the McCandless family's history. Krakauer went into much more detail in building up Walt and Billie as success stories in the American Dream, having both come up from working-class backgrounds in the West and Michigan respectively to run a lucrative consulting firm. At the same time, he emphasized their tragic flaws in detailing how they carried on an affair and had illegitimate children, then hid the truth from those children. I got the impression from both the book and the movie that there was a lot of self-centeredness and resentment around the household, both from Chris and from his parents. We didn't see much more from Carine, though; she was a narrator who tried to be fair to both parties in the movie, and also didn't seem to take much of a side in the book.
Chris himself was also filled in around the edges a lot in the book. The reader can see how his academic prowess came long before Emory, at Woodson High School--although his stubborn nature also did, as he had one F on his transcript in a physics class where he did not follow the format on lab reports. His political views are shown as conflicted, as many young, intellectually curious men and women are; his tending to the poor is supplanted with an unusual combination of founding (re-founding? Newt Gingrich was there once) the Emory College Republicans, railing against religious right leaders, and railing against "rich kids at Emory" in general (even if he was one himself.) It has been debated on here whether McCandless' foolishness was a sign of liberalism or conservatism, and whether Dennis Kucinich supporter Sean Penn was trying to prove a point about materialism and upper-class suburbia in the movie, but some of the answers are right there. McCandless is shown as emotionally distant, not much for human relationships or romance, and preferential of books over human friendship during his time at Emory, just as he was in the remaining two years of his life. His spartan lifestyle is also exposed, as he had a bare-bones living in his Atlanta apartment, without even a telephone. His trying relationship with his family is shown in even more detail; one has to wonder what led him to not have a potential "internship" with his parents' consulting firm during one of the summers that he instead drove across America the first time--an opportunity that would surely have helped him achieve his goals of attending Harvard Law School and becoming a great human rights attorney (not to mention he may have many more gaps of meaningful employment to explain from his final trip, had he returned alive.) It is intriguing that the book explains how he nearly blew his cover and revealed his whereabouts to his parents, and that we find out what happened to his washed-out car (it is used as a police car.)
Many of the characters he meets along the way--Ron Franz and the hippies, for instance--are carried almost verbatim from the book to the movie, and they are also executed well here. The book doesn't have Hal Holbrook delivering a phenomenal Franz performance, but it does allow the reader to emotionally connect with the minor characters, and sense their anxiety over Chris's abandonment of his family. The farms of South Dakota are also portrayed well, as Chris's work ethic in comparison to other wanderers is described in more detail. Much more detail is given to how poorly McCandless planned the Alaskan expedition, how he died, and how the natives of the state reacted (rightly and wrongly) to his blunders.
But the glaring flaw of the book is much of its midsection. There was absolutely no reason that it had to talk about many other travelers, whose circumstances were only tangentially related to McCandless' (or even Krakauer's.) Those chapters completely distracted from the book and added almost nothing to it.
However, due to the outstanding content of the rest of the book, which supplemented the content of the movie very well and both helped me loathe McCandless' disrespect for his family (as much as their own failings stood out) and his haphazard planning and execution of his trip, but also allowed me to identify a lot with his free spirit and intellectual nature, these chapters only subtract one star from an outstanding work.
Book Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer/Nonfiction
Summary: 4 Stars
To find oneself in this world, one must walk into the wild.
Jon Krakauer depicts this statement in his 1996 bestselling nonfiction book, Into the Wild, in which he documents the struggle of Chris McCandless in the wilderness of Alaska.
McCandless, a young man of twenty-four years and fresh out of college, is portrayed as a well mannered, sociable, and self-sufficient man throughout this documentation. McCandless, inspired mainly by his favorite authors who include Jack London and Leo Tolstoy, decides to embark on an adventure into the wild.
The book begins by documenting the discovery of a bus in the wilderness of Alaska in September of 1992 by some moose hunters. On further inspection, they find a decomposed body later identified as Christopher McCandless.
Krakauer begins to write the bulk of the tragic story in pieces through different sightings of McCandless, who had dropped his name and adopted the pseudonym "Alexander Supertramp". Sightings of this "Alex" dated back to 1990, right after he graduated from college. According to various reports cited in the book, McCandless hitchhiked up and down the western areas of the United States, taking minor jobs such as a server at McDonalds, and sleeping anywhere he could. His journey finally ended in Alaska, where he died around two weeks before he was found.
Reasons for McCandless' departure from society are not completely clear. There are many who believe that he was an ignorant kid who thought he could defy nature, but Krakauer writes admirably of McCandless' motives. Krakauer believes that McCandless wasn't ignorant when he walked into the wilderness. McCandless appears to Krakauer as a young man who wished to find his true self, and if that goal lay in the wild, so be it. Krakauer supposes that McCandless' death was out of one fatal error, not woven out of complete stupidity. McCandless may have taken an unnecessary risk in traversing Alaska and living off of the slim game and sparse berries, but in Krakauer's eyes McCandless was a hero to him, as Krakauer writes about similar experiences in his life and in others.
Throughout the story, Krakauer shows his unique style of writing by comparing McCandless with other adventurers who had similar views as McCandless, though they differ from him each in a different way. Some men were bound by insanity and suicide while other men kept their senses out in the wilderness until the very end, however few survived. The biggest comparison that Krakauer made was to himself. Krakauer once attempted to climb an extremely dangerous mountain, called the Devil's Thumb. He nearly escaped with his life after descending, being beaten by storm after storm. After this experience, the author comes to appreciate McCandless' struggle throughout the novel.
To help the reader piece together this story, Krakauer includes several excerpts of McCandless' journal, which bring the story to a more personal level. Towards the end of the book, these journal entries show the reader that McCandless grows more desperate in his attempts to survive and thus gives a first person perspective of the story.
When I read this tome, I honestly didn't expect anything special. I looked at the cover, and thought, "Here comes another Survivorman spin-off". As I began reading it, I became curious with not only the fate of Chris McCandless, but with the emotion of Krakauer himself, entwined within this tragedy. By the end of the narrative, Krakauer had immersed himself completely in the pages; I firmly believe that any reader who picks this book up will walk into the wild themselves, and feel the pressures of society melt away as the story progresses.
I truly found myself in this book, and I'm sure anyone else who reads this book will, like me, become Chris McCandless: Alone, remote, and fighting for survival.
In a postcard to one of his friends in South Dakota from whom he hitched a ride: "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 your a great man. I now walk into the wild."
-- Chris McCandless
Book Review: a moving adventure story...
Summary: 4 Stars
Into the Wild has two stories about 23 year olds who strike out on their own to Alaska, both having discovered, as teenagers, devastating family secrets involving their fathers, with whom they had had volatile relationships. One is the author, Jon Krakauer's story, and I wonder if that is why he gingerly handles the dads in each case. I was left with the feeling that neither story was fully told.
Primarily, Into the Wild is a book about Chris McCandless, who, in 1992 as a 23 year old, went to Alaska to fulfill his dream of living off the land. He died within 16 weeks. Chris had disappeared after he had graduated from Emory University, changed his name, and lived as a vagabond in the west. He met people, picked up jobs, and then headed to his ultimate adventure, to live in the wild.
Jon Krakauer, the author, was asked by the editor of Outside magazine to write an article about the young man who had starved to death in an abandoned bus in the wilderness. Readers responded strongly to the article, and Jon Krakauer followed up the article with a book. A few people who had known Chris as Alex came forward, most only knowing him for a couple weeks. Chris (aka "Alex Supertramp") had kept very short notes on his experiences, and his family hadn't seen him for a couple of years.
Chris harbored anger towards his father, there are hints about serious dysfunction in his family, but Krakauer seems to soft pedal around what was going on. But you get hints that Chris was trying to exorcise his parents from his life, from his soul. He was a damaged fragile personality who was lost internally and put himself in situations where he would have to deal with physical survival rather than what was haunting him. Krakauer didn't provide the evidence for this kind of damage, just clues.
If Chris had been just a little more prepared he would have lived. He found himself trapped by a swollen river when he retraced his steps to leave the wilderness, returned to the bus where he'd been living, and therefore died. If he had taken a topographical map he would have seen that ½ mile downstream from where he tried to cross there was a place he easily could have been successful.
Mr. Krakauer had little to go on to write an entire book, so there are chapters about other people in history who disappeared in the wilderness in Alaska and in the Southwest (because Chris had camped there during his vagrancy.)
Mr. Krakauer then tells his own transformational experience climbing a peak in Alaska when he was 23, and his own demons with his father. Mr. Krakauer doesn't draw a clear picture of his own father either. He says his father was a: "volatile, extremely complicated person, possessed of a brash demeanor that masked deep insecurities. If he ever in his entire life admitted to being wrong, I wasn't there to witness it." And then at the start of the next paragraph calls his dad a "kind and generous man." Mr. Krakauer says that "long held family secrets came to light" where he realized that his father was less than perfect and that Jon Krakauer was consumed by a blinding rage - but leaves unanswered what the secrets were. He knew his rage at his father drove him out and away - what could a father have done to do this? We are not privy to this information or understanding.
I found the most impressive story of this book to be Jon Krakauer's - he was a prepared mountaineer, his tale is gripping. I would have rather he expanded his experiences into a whole book than read about Chris McCandless' sad, shallow, tale.
As a note, the reason that I read this book is because I had seen the movie directed by Sean Penn. Mr. Penn filmed the movie on site and had the breathtaking scenery of the Southwest and Alaska to work with. He also could take license to embellish relationships that Mr. Krakauer could only guess at, and lastly, made Chris' relationship with his parents more black and white, which makes for a more clear tale.
Book Review: A True Journey
Summary: 4 Stars
Into the wild; back into your mind and spirit.
This emotional and compelling narrative story is forcefully written by Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild, published in 1996, tells the relationship between one "wild" inspired boy against nature. Chris McCandless went missing on a cross country trip during the summer of 1990. Driven by a strained relationship with his parents, and turning his back on the successful path after graduating with honors from Emory University, McCandless began a two year continental odyssey through dozens of major cities and three countries. This was not a conventional excursion--it was a new beginning for McCandless. Beginning by donating $24,000 of his savings to a charity, McCandless began to separate from normal society. He changed his name, his goals, and his perception of people. He adopted a new morality and most importantly, he removed himself from the established norm.
Krakauer acts as a journalist, retracing and explaining all of these experiences by interviewing many of those who ran into Chris McCandless on his journey. This writing style, although quite different from the norm, enabling the reader to vividly understand and feel the character from many different view points. The effect is captivating, because McCandless' character is one of a loner driven by his desire to experience life in a completely unconventional way. There are no illustrations in this true story, but none are needed. Jon Krakauer is able to convey a meaningful journey that society would regard as idiotic. One finally recognizes that McCandless (in Krakauer's words) was not a "wacko" or "a narcissist", but it is still up to each reader to form ones' own opinion of Chris McCandless.
The fascinating interviews Krakauer obtains from people that McCandless met along the way, offers deep insights into this young man's nature. Krakauer relies on McCandless' own writing, whether it is in his diary or his letters, to explain his character to the reader. A letter Chris McCandless wrote to a man, Ron Franz, he met in Salton City, California is used to show what McCandless thought is the basic meaning of life. Trying to motivate this man to change his life, McCandless writes,
"...The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. 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. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose you inclination for monotonous security and adapt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice...you are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living. My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out for you there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach. The only person you are fighting is yourself."
I will not reveal what ultimately befalls Chris McCandless on his journey to a new person. I will tell that the insights and motivations that are revealed in this compelling and eloquent book will make you challenge your pre-conceived notions about life. Be prepared to challenge your own assumptions about life.
Book Review: Choices and Lessons
Summary: 3 Stars
Chris McCandless' body was found not far from the border of Denali National Park in an abandoned bus that had been hauled into the back country for use as a temporary shelter for hunters. McCandless had been staying in this bus for some time as he attempted to live off the land in the vast and dangerous wilds of Alaska. The mystery of his death is not so much how he died (which apparently was more-or-less from starvation) but how he came to the point in his life where he would walk alone into the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness with only supplemental provisions and attempt to live almost entirely off the land.
Indeed, there appears little in Chris' upbringing that foreshadows the uncompromising choice Chris would later make. He was brought up middle-upper class, well educated and apparently in a home no more dysfunctional than most. Yet, beginning after high school, Chris embarked on quite lengthy solo travels and turned distinctly against his parents. After graduating from college, he, rather than preparing for post-graduate study as his parents believed, liquidated his college savings and set out alone on what would become a more than year-long sojourn in the West. During this time he became adroit at surviving on very little, living the anti-materialist belief system he had apparently adopted. Along the way he met and touched a few who were impressed by his integrity, if frightened by the implementation of his beliefs. Ultimately, Chris chose to attempt his anti-materialist lifestyle for a period in America's greatest remaining wilderness. With tragic results.
The story is no doubt intriguing and timeless - a young man tries his moral firmness against the bare knuckles of nature. Moreover, Jon Krakauer's writing is certainly well-paced and interestingly discursive - eminently readable. For two reasons, though, I found myself somewhat disappointed by this book that I fully intended to love. First, it appears to me that Krakauer did not have sufficient material to fill this book. Perhaps in article form this story left readers wanting more. However, at book length we are lead through stories about McCandless and/or his contemporaries that are not interesting or apparently important. It almost seems as though Krakauer put every bit of McCandless that he could find into this book regardless of importance. The result is that significant portions of the text do not move the story forward.
Second, it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that so much weight is piled on this young man's back. There seems little indication that Chris saw himself as a messiah or a seer, yet his name and story is often mentioned with weighty reverence. Perhaps, Krakauer is less guilty of this than his fans, but this novel does certainly attempt to present McCandless as an example, if flawed, to follow - almost a lite hagiography. The story, however, does not, in my opinion, have the substance to bear the weight. McCandless' philosophy on life does not appear well-preserved, and may well not have been well-considered. Though perhaps his choices were somewhat more severe than many young men, the fundamental pattern of his early adult wandering does not strike me as revolutionary. That said, McCandless does not, in my view, need to be Thoreau or Jeremiah to be worthy of our consideration. His story is interesting enough without the pretensions to cosmic importance.
I think most readers would find this book interesting and a fine read. Though it has some shortcomings, Into the Wild introduces us to a young man who acted as many claim to intend to act, but unfortunately died young. He is well worth knowing.