Into the Wild

I read Joh Krakauer's other mountaineering books Into Thin Air ...5 stars and Eiger Dreams 4 stars. I like him as an author, so I bought Into The Wild. Into The Wild is a true story, 209 pages of interesting comment mainly about Chris McCandless a young college graduate who withdrew totally from his parents and a lot of society, gave $25,000 to Charity, dumped his car and headed to the deep wilderness of Alaska. He was looking to find the enjoyment of living off the land with as little outside help as possible. The book reads fast and is a joy to read. Ill give you some tidbits to wet your appetite without ruining the story. Krakauer traces Chris's route through infrequent letters, postcards and interviews with some of the people Chris "Alex" met. The few friends he made liked young Chris who changed his name to Alex Supertramp. "Alex" was intelligent, a college grad, an avid book reader who had major ideas of freedom in a wilderness without civilization. He liked authors like Jack London, Thoreau and Tolstoy and authors who liked simple nature without the strangulation of civilization. Many thought "Alex' had a death wish to go into deep wilderness Alaska alone and very unprepared with very limited supplies, no heavy guns and little food. He had a big bag of rice and ate native plants, berries and the small game he could get. He does shoot a small moose but much of the meat spoils as he didn't know how to make jerky. Alex was no woodsman and very inexperienced. He becomes trapped and cant get out. Krakauer shows he may have poisoned himself accidently eating the wrong part of the wild potato plant. This alkaloid part would not let his starving body metabolize the limited food he could get. We see poor Chris "Alex" losing massive amounts of weight and strength. He lasts over 100 days and tries to get help,knows he is dieing, and dies in an old broken down, gutted bus in the middle of nowhere. He had no US geological maps and was only 6 miles from a few cabins that may have had some food and 2 miles from a easier wade through a fast running potentially lethal river. Very poor almost no planning. The reader develops empathy for poor Chris "Alex", his parents, sister and the few friends he meets on his journey. I felt sorry for the young man and could understand his wanting to see the beauty of nature in deep Alaska by himself but not his lack of planning and complete abandoning of his family. INMO the kid had serious issues but was not suicidal. Jon Krakauer gives his perspective having climbed the difficult Devils Thumb in Alaska. Also about his earlier years as a framing carpenter and comparing his earlier life with young Chris. Having read about this in another of his books, this part was a little redundant. I won't ruin the sad ending for you. Another great book by Joh Krakauer and proudly added to our family library. 4 1/2 stars

I love pretty much everything Krakauer has ever done, and this book is no exception. I read this after I read Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven, and I have to say that Krakauer's writing style is pretty much my favorite of any nonfiction author. There's a down-to-earth straightforwardness and humbleness that is really engaging and also endearing. I don't know whether he would find that flattering, but for me it's the truth. Krakauer's books are so engaging it's difficult to keep track of time when you're reading them. I have to say, however, 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 amount of Krakauer's apologies or explanations of the boy's actions could change that. I live in New Mexico and my parents took my brother and I camping, hiking, fishing and hunting starting at a young age. And from the very first time we ever went "into the wild" my father and mother were very careful to point out to us that nature, while beautiful, was not our friend. My dad put it best one time: "Nature is indifferent about whether or not you survive out here. If you get into trouble, don't count on Nature to help you. It won't. Survival will be entirely up to you." Like Alaska, we get a lot of people in New Mexico who haven't internalized that message. They wander out into the desert or up into the mountains, looking to commune with the Eagle Spirit or the Sun God or just test their own mettle, and wind up in desperate straits that other people have to rescue them from, or they end up dead. In my opinion, Chris McCandless was no different or better than any of the other independence-seeking, overconfident, idealistic nature-loving morons who wander out into the wilderness and get into trouble. And ultimately, that's why it was hard for me to accept Krakauer's analysis of McCandless' actions. What was offensive to me wasn't that McCandless wanted to test himself or get away from the world. I understand those impulses very well. I understand wanderlust and the need to travel, because when you travel, you can be anyone. You can do anything. Like McCandless, seeing new things and meeting new people is a big driver for me in my life. I understand the need for independence and the need to find out who you are separate from who your parents want you to be. What I can't understand or have empathy for is McCandless' incredible arrogance and hubris. He threw himself out into thin air and hoped Mother Nature would be there to catch him. For all his blathering about going up against nature and proving himself, it's obvious he saw nature as a benevolent force that would help him out if he got into a jam. That was just an incredibly stupid thing to think, there's no two ways about it. Naive doesn't begin to cover McCandless, and it's hard to have sympathy for someone who not only was ignorant but refused to listen to the advice and expertise of the experienced people who tried to help him. I know there are probably a lot of people out there who admire people like McCandless and some who probably want to follow in his footsteps, only believing that they, unlike him, could make it out of the wild alive. That's the danger of books as good as this one - people may read them and think that because they can identify McCandless' mistakes, they can do what he did better and their own shortcomings don't matter. All I can say is that no matter how tough you think you are, nature is tougher, and going out into wilderness without a map, decent provisions, and some way of contacting the outside world (even if it's a signal flare) is asking for trouble. Ultimately, the only good thing about McCandless' lonely death is that he didn't end up in a situation where some search and rescue person would have to come after him, and possibly lose his or her life. When people wander out alone into the wild, they need to understand they are putting not only themselves at risk, but anyone who may have to go after them and bring them back. That's why I have so little sympathy for McCandless - he recklessly endangered himself, causing endless pain for his family, and did not seem to understand the position he was putting other people in - people who cared about him and later had to bear guilt over his death. This is a fascinating read and a must-read for any armchair adventurer who is even considering heading out into nature themselves, even for a camping trip. It's not only a compelling story, it's an amazing cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they're tougher than what the wilderness can dish out.

I was interested in the story of Chris McCandless, that interest stimulated by a visit to Denali National Park. What I did not expect (since this was the first John Kraukauer book that I’ve read) was that the author identified with Chris in multiple ways. I appreciated his explanation of Chris’s probable cause of death. I equally enjoyed his writing style.

Fascinating true story! Could hardly put it down.

Ya había visto la película y me encantó, así como su BSO, que es fantástica. El libro me ha gustado mucho, cuenta más sobre la personalidad de Chris y sobre sus vivencias, además de otras historias que el escritor nos cuenta y que aporta mucho a nivel personal. Es un libro que emociona y me ha hecho llorar en varios pasajes, no sé si por temas personales o es algo que a los que les ha gustado el libro les ha pasado, pero es así, sobre todo al final, cuando sus padres van a visitar el sitio donde su hijo murió. Me gustaría ir allí algún día. Puedo entender la personalidad de Chris, se parece a una persona importante para mí que murió e igual por eso me emociona tanto. También me han gustado mucho las diversas citas de diversos autores, sobre todo de Pasternak de Dr. Zhivago. Volveré a ver la película de nuevo, que por cierto, refleja muy bien el libro.

この本を読んでいなくても アラスカの荒野のバスの中で餓死した若者の話を誰しも一度は聞いた事があるんじゃないだろうか。 多くの人の反応は『だからどうした？』『自殺でしょ？』と言ったもので なぜ彼がそこに至ったかについて深く探ろうとは思わない。 にも関わらず、彼の死は今だに多くの人々を惹きつけ 毎年バスへの巡礼者は後を絶たない。 その彼、Chris McCandlessの人生の旅の過程を追い 同じように荒野に消えた若者たちや 著者であるKrakauer本人の体験を交えて分析したノンフィクションである。 内容を読んで感じるのは、McCandlessの異常なまでの純粋さ。 人間社会の曖昧さや人間の弱さ、狡さを決して受け入れず 理想としての平等性、公平性が現実世界に実現しない事に激しく憤り やがて過度の純粋性を求めるあまり荒野での一人暮らしを目指す。 友人や恩人の忠告を受け入れ、あるいは省みる事なく 自分の信じた道を突き進み、やがて自らを苦境に追い込んでいく。 彼は旅の過程で様々な人間に出会い、驚くほど多くの人に影響を与える。 彼と交わった人の多くは彼の頭の良さ、純粋さ、勤勉さに感銘を受け、彼への支援を惜しまない。 彼には人々にそうさせる魅力、カリスマ性が備わっていたのだろう。 だが、そのような暖かさや人情に触れたにも関わらず、 結局彼は人間社会を許す事ができず、誰も彼が荒野に行くのを止める事は出来なかった。 彼が心に一体どのような闇を抱えていたのか その点については本書を読んでも完全には明らかにならない。 そして現在、いまだに多くの若者が彼の生き方に共感し 全米各地からはるばるアラスカの荒野にまで足を運び 彼がいた場所や空気、見たであろう風景を共有したいと願う。 それはまるで現代に現れ、彼らのために殉死した新たな救世主を慕う信者のようだ。 彼は死ぬ直前に『Happiness only real when shared』というメッセージを残している。 著者が言うように、これは彼が放浪の末ようやく人間社会や文明を許し そこに戻る決心を示したものかも知れない。 そうだとすれば、運命はなんと非情というか、それとも皮肉というべきか 漸く純粋な魂が救われたその直後に彼の命を奪い去ってしまった事になる。 これは純粋な魂の鎮魂歌と言えるノンフィクションである。

Acquistato in inglese perché preferisco leggere i libri nella loro lingua originale se la conosco. Bellissima lettura, riletto più volte.

Spannend en avontuurlijk, ook dramatisch.

Que l'on adhère ou non au choix de vie de Christopher McCandless, ce bouquin - une expansion d'un article de 9000 mots publié en 1993 - est incroyablement bien écrit. A l'instar des autres livres de Krakauer, il est agréable à lire. Veuillez cependant noter que ce livre n'est pas une histoire mais une biographie/récit/enquête écrite en anglais. Fait intéressant: chaque chapitre commence par une citation ou un petit passage de livres lus par McCandless. En conclusion: un chouette moment de détente et de réflexion à la fois sur notre style de vie et sur les choix de ce jeune homme.