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Loading... Into the Wildby Jon Krakauer
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. The unknown circumstances surrounding the death of this tragic figure is captivating. The book is filled with hypothesis from strangers who attempt to dissect Chris's mental attitude, as well as quotes about naturisms, adventurisms, spiritualisms and idealisms. The chronology of events in the book jumps back and forth in time, therefore some recounts are repeated. Two chapters deviate from Chris's story, and becomes the author's own bio. This was odd and didn't really work for me. I guess the author wanted the reader to know that he was qualified to speculate about Chris's mindset because of similairities in their upbringing, and because of his own mountaineering feats in comparison with other people's misadventures. Nothing is definitive and I do not glorify this book. Rather I chose to take away from it the fact that Chris was much admired and touched the hearts of those he encountered on his sojourn, the fact that he penned his last note with his birth name, and getting the message out to other adventurers and meaning-of-life-seekers about the importance of calling home. (  ) paperdust | Nov 8, 2009 |  I think to really appreciate this book you'd have to be a certain type of person. You have to have a little part inside of you that wishes it could let go of everything you own, everything society has put on you, and just go -- somewhere, anywhere, it doesn't matter -- because that's what this true story is about. ( ) wandereux | Nov 4, 2009 | A beautifully tragic account of young Chris McCandless's journey (and subsequent death) in the wilds of Alaska. Using diary entries, interviews with people who knew McCandless, and some similar historical endeavors, Krakauer attempts to uncover the motivations and thought processes behind the urge to experience nature in unbelievably dangerous situations. I have never had such an urge in my life, so the description of such an alien frame of mind enthralled me. I have mixed feelings about McCandless himself; I think he mistreated a lot of people who cared about him, but it sounded like he was on the brink of turning his life around there at the end. This story would not have worked as a novel - the premise is just too unbelievable and the timeline far too jumpy - but knowing it was true kept me turning pages until the very end. I agree with the review in the Washington Post, printed on the back cover: "Anyone who ever fancied wandering off to face nature on its own harsh terms should give a look." (  ) melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | it was great! captivating and easy to read! ( ) bridgetZsweet | Oct 26, 2009 | This was an interesting book about not only Chris McCandless's tragic and unnecessary death, but about how someone's romantic view of nature can blind them to its harsh reality. ( ) krin5292 | Oct 17, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0385486804, Paperback)"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't—cannot—answer 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.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:12 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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