Jon Krakauer

Life on his own terms

I was fascinated by the author's account of a young man, Chris McCandless, who lived his life on his own terms. As part of his attempt to bypass the trappings of traditional society, he sets off on a journey to truly experience life in its simplest, most basic form. He was influenced by a number of writers, including Tolstoy, London, and Thoreau in this endeavor to find beauty, truth and joy. Unfortunately, his youthful zeal obscured some of the research and analysis show more required to survive in an unforgiving natural environment. I think the extent to which you would enjoy this book is directly proportional to how well you can relate to Chris McCandless' philosophy. The author clearly does, and spends a good amount of time helping the reader understand, including devoting entire chapters to people with a similar outlook. It is well written and engaging. At the end, he clarifies factors that contributed to Chris' demise by way of extremely detailed research to prove his hypothesis (and revised accordingly when new information came to light). show less

Into the Wild is simply incredible. Stark, philosophical, insightful, Krakauer examines what would make a man forsake society, take incredible chances, and ultimately die, starving and alone in the Alaskan brush. Some people say this book glorifies stupidity and recklessness, but I'm not so sure. Chris was arrogant and unprepared, certainly, but he lived his brief life almost entirely on his terms. Most of us make peace with the necessary hypocrisies and injustices of life; Chris never did. show more He died, but would surrendering have been any better for him? Not everything needs to have a purpose, and while nobody should feel obliged to emulate Chris, his actions were in their own terms, noble and important. show less

I've come to admire Jon Krakauer's gripping nonfiction (despite my higher-brow friends' tisk-tisking). And Into the Wild certainly is gripping nonfiction - Chris McCandless' ill-fated adventures are told with artful prose and fastidious research. I don't know how Krakauer makes it such a page-turner.

The book is framed, basically, as a mystery: Chris McCandless is dead. Why? The book does its best to humanize McCandless without lionizing him: through McCandless' own journals, interviews with show more his friends and family, by delving into a brief history of mountain men & radical naturalists, and by examining Krakauer's own personal experiences.

All of this makes for great reading. But in the end, though we learn in all probability how he died, there aren't any answers as to why. Was McCandless a young, privileged fool, ignoring his responsibilities? Or was he bravely following a noble impulse? Or are these questions just us trying to intellectualize away our voyeurism? show less

The book uses the horrific acts of the Lafferty brothers as a jumping point to explore Mormon fundamentalism. It does talk about mainstream Mormon church but only in so far as it interacts with the various fundamentalist sects. I was looking more for an account of how a religion that was (almost literally) pulled out of a hat by a certain Joseph Smith less than 200 years ago can grow enough in political clout/mainstream acceptance to put a candidate within striking distance of the white show more house. This isn't the ideal book for that but I thoroughly enjoyed the parts of Mormon history that the book does cover - the inception of the church under the charismatic Joseph Smith and its consolidation into an abiding entity that survived multiple attempts to stomp it out by a determined federal government under the ruthless Brigham Young. Fresh off my reading of the history of Scientology, I could discern many parallels between the two religions - the charisma of their founders, how they shaped their respective religions to mask their personal insecurities and endorse their vices as virtues, how just the right leader (Brigham Young for Mormonism, David Miscavige for Scientology) took over the reins when the honeymoon phase was over and a ruthless hand was needed to quell any threats to the religion from both within and without, how quickly the founders are beatified and just how quickly the fairly incredulous founding mythologies are embraced as holy truths. Will America (almost) elect a Scientologist as president in another 80 years? Disturbingly enough, "Going Clear" makes a mention of Tom Cruise expressing precisely this desire to David Miscavige - when I read it, I thought it was a pipe dream. Now, I am not so sure. show less