Jon Krakauer

This book, as are all Krakauer's books, is very well-written and very engrossing. The story of Christopher McCandless is one of an idealistic young twentysomething who leaves his life behind after graduating from college to become Alexander Supertramp, a wandering nomad on his way to Alaska for a great adventure.

Except he was stupid. Now, Krakauer makes a huge deal about how smart, how intellectual McCandless was. How big of a reader he was. How animated, how intelligent, how engaging he show more was. He touched a lot of lives on his adventures across America; he made friends.

But he didn't get it. The boy repeatedly picked up and left, leaving people and places behind without much of a care in the world as to what his departure meant to those he was leaving; what his absence meant to his ever-worrying family; what his not being there meant to the sister that he supposedly cared so deeply for, but didn't bother contacting even once during his travels. If anything he was naive and selfish, and blind to the effect he had on others, willfully or not.

But what gets me about this book is how determined Krakauer is to compare himself to McCandless. He devotes a few chapters to creating parallels to himself and McCandless, insisting that he was that same headstrong boy in his twenties. But he missed out on one big, huge detail: he survived his twenties, and he did it because he knew what he was doing. He took maps. He took gear. He didn't just look at a vast, open wilderness and start walking. He planned.

McCandless didn't, and it got him killed. It's said repeatedly, in the book, in the news articles, and in the movie -- had McCandless simply taken a map with him, he'd have known about nearby cabins. He'd have known about a river crossing. He'd have known he wasn't nearly as far into the wilderness as he'd come to believe he was. He'd likely have survived the entire ordeal. And yet.

The book itself is fantastic. It's engrossing, it's well-written, and it gives you a pretty damn good look into McCandless's short life. It certainly tries to make him into a hero, an American rambling man -- but for me it fell short in that regard, trying to make McCandless out to be a whale when really, he was simply a fish. show less

With a strong fear of heights, I have no interest in climbing but Krakauer can capture the reader's interest no matter the subject. The chapters on climbing are gripping, but the one titled "On Being Tentbound" is just as entertaining. Who knew being stuck in a tent for several days in an icy storm could provide so much material. Krakauer does not fade for an instant in this outstanding collection.

This was one of the "emergency" heap of his favourite books my son brought to me when libraries show more were locked-down last spring. My only regret is that I didn't get to it sooner. show less

I had to stop reading this while eating because the stress was giving me stomach cramps. The author's writing is so vivid, so compelling, and the story is truly horrifying. In the Prologue the author explains that he wrote the book so soon after the disaster in part to help himself process everything that took place up there, and I could really feel that come through in his writing (this is not a criticism, it is a compliment). Grappling with the choices everyone made, how people's flaws or show more prejudices or bravery or tenacity played a role, would absolutely require some heavy-duty processing for a survivor, and it makes for fascinating reading. Highly, highly recommend. show less

This is Jon Krakauer's famous study of Chris "Alex" McCandless, a young man who rejected his wealthy family and much of civilization in general in favor of a life on the road and in the wilderness. In 1992, he realized his ultimate goal of retreating to the Alaskan wild to live off the land, only to die of starvation there a few months later.

It's a sensitive examination of a complex life and an unfortunate death. And while Krakauer writes with real sympathy for McCandless, he leaves it very show more much up to the reader to form their own option of the guy. Was he a naive, reckless dumbass with more fancy philosophical thoughts than common sense, who had no business being where he was, as under-prepared as he was? Or was he a smart, sensitive, thoughtful guy carrying on a long tradition of seeking personal insight through contact with the wild, who died more because he was unlucky than because he was dumb or arrogant? Or was he both? Me, I think I'm going to go with both, but it's a surprisingly complex and thought-provoking question to ponder.

And Krakauer's writing as he invites us to ponder these things is good. He jumps back and forth from time to time and topic to topic: re-tracing McCandless's steps on his journey, filling in his backstory, discussing other people who disappeared in the wilderness in similar ways, even recounting a story from Krakauer's own youth that he feels gives him some insight into McCandless's thinking. All of this hopping around could easily have become confusing or mildly annoying, but somehow it instead works very well. And Krakauer has an excellent instinct for when to offer up his own thoughts and relevant experiences, and when to remove himself from the story and let his subject matter speak for itself. show less