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Into the Wild (Paperback) (平装)
by Jon Krakauer
| Category:
Adventure, Outdoors, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
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¥ 148.00
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 13 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
After having had this book for some time, I finally set out to make it part of my summer 2000 reading schedule. I am drawn to books of the northern wilderness, which was the initial attraction to this one. I'll state up front that I have not read anything else by Krakauer, so I cannot draw any comparisons as other reviewers have done.
Krakauer tells the tale effectively. He uses an intelligent vocabulary balanced with a conversational writing style. He easily held my attention as the facts unfolded throughout, employing logic and drawing inferences to fill in many questions that remain. He obviously did his research on the central character, Christopher McCandless, and must have invested countless quantities of money and time to gather accurate information. With so many of the facts of this distressing story remaining obscured probably forever, his assumptions and extrapolations about Chris' actual fate are posed as theories rather than as irreproachable conclusions. I appreciate this aspect of Krakauer's account.
Hats off also to the McCandless family, since Krakauer relied upon them not only for information about their son, tragically lost, but also for their courage in allowing many private family issues to be exposed in support of telling the story as thoroughly as possible. Chris' father, mother, and sister are true heroes in my eyes.
I have some degree of understanding of Chris and his northerly wanderlust, and also an appreciation for the not-so-uncommon desire to conquer the wilderness. What concerns me, however, is the apparent arrogance of the central character. According to the author's account, Chris seemed to possess an intermittent wariness about his closest acquaintances, along with outright rejection of others who cared for him much more than he cared for them. He treated some important people who crossed his path as disposable. But probably Chris's most crucial deficiency was the flippant and over-confident approach towards the actual work of survival in the wilderness. He even seemed a bit contemptuous toward relevant learning despite his quality education and intelligence. He especially needed important knowlege about survival in the wilds of the north. However, he apparently rebuffed all attempts from others to assist him in his quest. I have spent considerable time in the extreme north of B.C. (an area not entirely dissimilar to Alaska): it is ridiculous, misguided, and presumptuous to embark on such an adventure with the dearth of equipment, supplies, and knowledge as did Chris. I would want to know everything possible about how to survive such a life and death endeavor. Indeed, I feel a strange combination of sadness and anger as I reflect on Chris's unfortunate departure. Was his death ultimately caused by youthful innocence or arrogant ignorance? It is a question I cannot answer and I commend Krakauer for his deft ability to stimulate thought in the reader rather than provide tidy little assumptive answers.
My only complaint: the personal reflective chapter towards the end of the book. I understand why Krakauer included it (personal connections with the need for adventure, context, struggles with nature, etc.), but for me it was irrelevant and it de-railed the flow of the story.
Perhaps we can learn from Christopher McCandless' experience, not in any attempt to qualify him as a martyr or to label him a fool. I have thought about how my appreciation for the north has changed, how families need to be close, the requirement to really listen to and understand people, and countless other themes which have been tweaked by Jon Krakauer's writing about Chris' misadventure. I recommend this book highly.
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J. Lemanski (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
I'm afraid to sound overly enthusiastic about this book for fear that those so "annoyed" by it will take their anger in spending [money] on Jon Krakauer. Krakauer is a great journalistic writer and his work and research far exceeds any ficticious adventure flick.
I can understand how one can get confused with the shifts in location and time during McCandless's two year journey, but retracing the man's steps should not be the focus. Krakauer enlightens the reader and unfolds the mystery of McCandless's death as interviews, childhood experiences and stories of similar adventurers give greater insight to the man's psyche. I was continuously facinated as I read highlighted passages from McCandless's books, grafitto, et al which Krakauer includes at the beginning of each chapter. All the research he has done is not just laid out flat, but revealed in a dialogue between him and the reader.
Others I've read remark McCandless as stupid, selfish, uninteresting, and a waste of a human life, suggesting stories by Jack London as a superior examination of human condition.
"McCandless [and other readers obviously] conveniently overlooked the fact that London himself had spent just a single winter in the North and that he'd died by his own hand on his California estate at the age of forty, a fatuous drunk, obese and pathetic, maintaining a sedentary existence that bore scant resemblance to the ideals he espoused in print" (44).
It is sad to know that such a life holds more respect than one man's passion to actually live out his beliefs as did McCandless.
As far as calling this man stupid and selfish, some readers happen to skim over the parts about his college education and donating [money] to OXFAM America, a charity dedicated to fighting hunger. I don't know where you live, but how many teenagers do you know who read War and Peace and spend the last of their money to buy hamburgers to give to the homeless while their peers are out partying?
McCandless may have been overly confident and stubborn to make his way on his own, but weren't his ideals real? Those who knew him speak of his true love of nature and high spirits. How anyone can claim he was wasting his life instead of living for the gain of material possesions is beyond me. McCandless reached his dream of living off the land and he did it for over 100 days, while others work their whole lives and feel empty, never knowing the real beauty of the world.
Krakauer tells of experiences with Alaskan hunters who claim that McCandless was wrong in thinking the animal he killed was a moose after examining the bones. "It was definitely a caribou...you'd have to be pretty stupid not to tell them apart" (177). Krakauer later found out that the animal was in fact a moose. Seems as though the natives are overly confident of themselves as well.
And had it not been for a bit of information left out in a refernce book of edible plants, McCandless may have survived.
The main thing that saddens me when I read reviews with low ratings is the hypocritical way the reader will toss off a man's life as not worth the pages in this book while complaining about McCandless wasting his own life. No one is trying to make this man out as a saint and judging his actions on your own ideas of success does not give your life more reason.
I'll end with a few quotes of the book that some may need to read over:
"McCandless wasn't some reckless slacker, adrift and confused, racked by existential despair. To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily. He demanded much of himself-more, in the end, than he could deliver" (184).
"'Sure he screwed up' Roman answers, 'but I admire what he was trying to do. Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult. I've never done it. And I'd bet you that very few, if any, of the people who call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either, not for more than a week or two. Living in the interior bush for an extended period, subsisting on nothing but what you hunt and gather-most people have no idea how hard that actually is. And McCandless almost pulled it off'" (185).
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
This is the tragic stroy of Christopher McCandless, a man who was willing to sacrafice everything for a chance at experiencing life as few people ever do. One day Chris, or Alexander Supertramp as he preferred to be called, decided to cut all ties with the modern world and live in absolute freedom. Jon Krakauer beautifully narrates the reader through Alexander's ill-fated adventure that finally ended in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska. Along the way, the reader is introduced to a collection of colorful people who have also sought escape from the trials of daily life. These glimpses help to put Alexander's uncommon desire to break from modern society into its proper perspective. Into the Wild is also a story about one family's love for their son, and the search for understanding and closure concerning his eventual death. In the process the reader is given great insight into the mind, and possible motives for his desire to escape. But, as we find out this is not just the story of one family, but, the story of many people and families that Alexander touched in his odyessy across America. Despite the fact that Alexander's quest cost him his life, I would dare to say that during those four brief months he felt more alive and experienced more than most people do in a entire lifetime. His warm smile on the opening page is a testament to the happiness, and contentment that he experienced in his self-imposed solitude. Finally, this is not merely a book about the tragedy of death, it is instead a celebration of nature and one mans quest to experience it.
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Cecelia (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
I loved this book. It's one of the most original and satisfying works of non-fiction I've read in a long time. Mr. Krakauer writes beautifully, and he did an amazing amount of on-the-ground research to unravel the mystery of Chris McCandless, a very remarkable, if difficult, young man.
Having just read the 1-star review below by the anonymous person from Freeport Maine, I can't let his/her negative observations pass without comment. First of all, Freeport accuses Mr. Krakauer of writing Into the Wild in order to cash in on the success of his bestseller Into Thin Air. This is somewhat unlikely, because Into the Wild was published more than a year BEFORE Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air!
Also, Freeport opines that McCandless's "story and his family should be left alone. Shame on Mr. Krakauer for attempting to profit from their intense loss." The only problem with this opinion is that the McCandless family has stated publicly that they are extremely glad Mr. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild.
In early 1996, a month or two before Mr. Krakauer went to Mt. Everest, I saw him give a lecture/slide show about Into the Wild at a Borders bookstore outside of Baltimore. At the beginning of the lecture Mr. Krakauer introduced Walt and Billie McCandless, Chris's parents, who were in the audience that night. After the slide show I approached them and told them how much I admired their son. Then I asked them what they thought of Mr. Krakauer's book. They said they were extremely grateful that Mr. Krakauer had written it, because Into the Wild had answered many riddles about their son that had been troubling them - riddles that would have otherwise gone unanswered. Mr. McCandless even admitted that in some ways Mr. Krakauer had probably come to know Chris better than they knew him during the last years of his life. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCandless spoke quite highly of Mr. Krakauer's integrity and his skill as a journalist.
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Stephanie (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
This is an outstanding work of literature, one of the most wrenching, most provocative books I have ever read. But it is NOT and adventure story per se. If you are expecting something like Krakauer's other bestseller, Into Thin Air, you will be disappointed. Yes, Into the Wild tells the story of a young man who went seeking adventure in the wilds of Alaska and did not survive. But Krakauer isn't really interested in telling a testosterone-soaked cliffhanger. Rather, he sets out to explore the inner life of a very complicated, very idealistic, very intense young man. This is a very sophisticated work. It is a book about ideas more than actions. Krakauer was going after big literary game in this book, and he pulled it off brilliantly.
This book is actually about longing and loss. It's about our historical fascination with the ever-receding American frontier, and how that's influenced our national character. That is why the detours Krakauer takes to tell the stories of seekers other than McCandless are an essential part of the book. These detours are certainly not mere filler, as other reviewers have complained (or, rather, they will only be considered filler by readers who want a rip-roaring adventure tale, and nothing more). Actually I thought the chapters in which the author goes off on tangents to write about Everett Ruess, and especially his own adventure on Alaska's Devils Thumb, were some of the most powerful parts of the book. The prose in these sections is beautifully crafted. Reading some of Krakauer's passages, I felt like I was intoxicated. He is that good a writer.
I have read this book 4 times now, and I have gained a better appreciation of the author's tremendous skill and subtlety with each reading. If you are a serious reader with an interest in nature or the American West, I can't recommend this book strongly enough. It will stick with you for a long, long time.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
I read Into the Wild before Into Thin Air, as a random pickup in the San Francisco airport. It consumed me through the entire flight and regretfully was over when we landed. It seems that some reviewers have focused on how little sympathy they have for McCandless, the "poor little rich kid" who died in the wilderness alone. It's interesting that the same people enjoyed Into Thin Air, which could be called a story about a whole group of "poor little REALLY rich kids." This isn't the way either book grabbed me.
Into the Wild was a fascinating story about that mysterious quality in some people that drives them to be as alone as possible - away from people, away from family, away from civilization. We are shown with several examples (not just McCandless) that this quality drives these people to sacrifice their belongings, their comfort, even their personal safety in pursuit of complete solitude. As we see in the beginning of the book (don't worry, I'm not giving anything away!), this compulsion often ends in death, alone and isolated. There is a real tragic element to the way Krakauer asks "Why do they do this? What is missing for them in life? What are they searching for?"
Part of what makes the book so interesting is that Krakauer identifies with these people, and candidly admits to having a streak of the loner-adventurer in him. His story and those of many other interesting, mysterious wanderers are interwoven with the main story about McCandless. Krakauer's personal identification with the story brings you that much closer to the mystery, even if you've never felt the compulsion to walk out on civilized life and leave everyone and everything behind you (how many people haven't felt that way at some point?).
Comparing this book to Into Thin Air seems inevitable considering that book's success. I would say Into the Wild is just as engaging, but much more personal. It is just as tragic but the source of the tragedy is the mysterious human character, not really the battle against the forces of nature. To me, Into the Wild was powerfully interesting on a personal level, where Into Thin Air was engaging as an adventure/disaster story.
I highly recommend this book. Don't shortchange yourself on Krakauer by stopping with Into Thin Air. Into the Wild is some of his best work!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-29 00:00>
Obviously this book strikes some sort of cord with a large and varied audience. With the amount of reviews written about this book, people who read it feel compelled to share their thoughts about it, be they positive or negative. This is not a novel. This is not a biography. This is not a simple story with a beginning, middle, and end. Do not expect to put this book down and not be kept constantly thinking about it. This book cannot be held merely within its front and back cover. If all you want to read is a story that either makes you happy or sad, go to your local grocery store and pick up a Harlequin Romance.
Given some of the reactions to this book, it seems that many people are reading this after Into Thin Air. That book was autobiographical and cathartic. Krakaeur reiterates his reasons for writing are part of a more personal struggle to figure out what went wrong and how he might best tell the world about it both from a subjective and objective standpoint. Krakauer was on Mount Everest. He experienced that journey. He did not experience the journey of Chris McCandless, and furthermore he does not act as though he did.
I went to Emory while Chris McCandless was there. I did not know him or even of him, although a friend or two may have had a class with him. Once I heard of him and his exodus into the Alaskan wilderness, I was fascinated with the mystery of his life and his death.
It upsets me that many readers think Krakaeur is turning McCandless into a hero and holding him up on a pedastel as someone who chose to be free and lived life as it should be lived. While a reader may choose to interpret McCandless this way, Krakaeur does not say this! Krakaeur's own fascination with the sheer determination and sense of free will that McCandless embodies is quite evident, so much so that he felt so strongly as to write a book about it.
On the one hand, Krakaeur does his best to investigate the facts of McCandless' odyssey. Where did he go, when did he go there, how did he get there, and what did he do while he was there. This is investigative journalism: piecing together bits of random information from all sorts of characters to put the puzzle together. Krakaeur does his best to give as brutally honest and objective of a tale as he can.
What seems more controversial than this method of storytelling is Krakaeur's quest for understanding why McCandless chose to go forth Into the Wild. He asks the same questions as the readers (and not to forget the McCandless family): What did he want to learn? What did he abhor about society and why? What did he think true freedom was? Where did he get these ideas? What was he trying to prove, if anything at all? Did he really think he would survive and if he did, what then would he do?
By delving into the writings and conversations of Chris McCandless, Krakauer attempts to answer some of these questions. He does not claim to know anything for certain. He offers some insights as drawn from both personal and historical anecdotes. Why does anyone try and test their limits? Krakauer shows the reader that perhaps no one knows exactly what they are trying to find out and the journey that develops is a creation of this confusion. It is this entity, the creation itself that is both the question and the answer.
The reactions that the reader has from this book are almost as important as what is actually written. Whatever it makes you question and feel, be glad that someone made you think. I seriously doubt anyone can read this book and not have an opinion. Every aspect of this book is a voyage of discovery: for the reader, the writer, and the subject himself.
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J. Mullin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
There is little suspense (in the traditional sense of the word) in Krakauer's Into the Wild, as anyone who reads the synopsis or picks up the book instantly learns that it is the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who ventures into the Alaskan Wilderness and who never gets out. Chris' body is found in an abandoned bus used by moose hunters as a makeshift lodge, and Krakauer skillfully attempts to retrace his steps in an effort both to understand what went wrong, and to figure out what made McCandless give away his money, his car, and head off into Denali National Forest in the first place.
His book was one of the most haunting, unforgettable reads in recent years for me. I was mezmerized by passages in the author's other best-selling masterpiece Into Thin Air, such as the passage involving stranded and doomed guide Rob Hall, near the Everest summit, talking to his pregnant wife via satellite phone to discuss names for their unborn child. However, I was unprepared for the depths of emotion felt in reading Into the Wild - it literally kept me up at nights, not just reading but thinking about the book in the dark.
Some reviewers criticized the book because they thought McCandless demonstrated a naive and unhealthy lack of respect for the Alaskan wilderness. This is no hike on the Appalachian Trail - Chris was literally dropped off by a trucker into the middle of nowhere, with no provision stores, guides, or means of assistance nearby at his disposal. He had a big bag of rice and a book about native plants, designed to tell him which plants and berries he could eat. "How could he have been so stupid?", they ask.
Well, I certainly didn't feel compelled to give away my belongings, pack some rice and a Tolstoy novel and walk into the woods after reading the book, but the author does a remarkable job of exploring McCandless the person, including passages derived from interviews with the many poeple whose lives he touched in his odyssey as he drove and then hitch-hiked cross country from his well-to-do suburban home. Some of the more touching parts of the book involved tearful reminisces by some of these old aquaintances when they learned he had perished.
Krakauer also throws in for good measure an illuminating passage about a similar death-defying climb that he foolishly attempted at about the same age as McCandless, with little training and preparation, providing insight into what makes a person attempt a dangerous climb or hike. He even tells several fascinating tales, all of them true, of other recreational hikers who were stranded in the wilderness.
By the end of the book, I thought I understood McCandless' character, and I thought Krakauer was probably right in putting his finger on exactly what caused his death. I was moved by his plight regardless of his possible foolishness in venturing into Denali, and the final scenes involving Chris' family were emotionally devastating. You need not be an outdoorsman to appreciate it, and in fact unlike Into Thin Air the book is completely accessible to those who know nothing about the subject. I think this book is destined to become a classic.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
This is a poignant, compelling narrative about Chris McCandless, an intelligent, intense, and idealistic young man, who cut off all ties to his upper middle class family. He then reinvented himself as Alexander Supertramp, a drifter living out of a backpack, eking out a marginal existence as he wandered throughout the United States. A modern day King of the Road, McCandless ended his journey in 1992 in Alaska, when he walked alone into the wilderness north of Denali. He never returned.
Krakauer investigates this young man's short life in an attempt to explain why someone who has everything going for him would have chosen this lifestyle, only to end up dead in one of the most remote, rugged areas of the Alaskan wilderness. Whether one views McCandless as a fool or as a modern day Thoreau is a question ripe for discussion. It is clear, however, from Krakauer's writing that his investigation led him to feel a strong, spiritual kinship with McCandless. It is this kindred spirit approach to his understanding of this young man that makes Krakauer's writing so absorbing and moving.
Krakauer retraced McCandless' journey, interviewing many of those with whom he came into contact. What metamorphosed is a haunting, riveting account of McCandless' travels and travails, and the impact he had on those with whom he came into contact. Krakauer followed McCandless' last steps into the Alaskan wilderness, so that he could see for himself how McCandless had lived, and how he had died. This book is his epitaph.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
Into the Wild is one of the most unusual and powerful books I have ever read. Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless very skillfully, in haunting, mesmerizing prose. Krakauer's themes are grand, but he makes his points with great subtlety and understatement. Some readers have failed to understand what he is up to, but those who are perceptive will get it.
Some readers, for instance, apparently didn't understand why Krakauer included two chapters about his own solo Alaskan adventure, which he undertook when he was the same age as McCandless. But Krakauer's inclusion of these chapters is absolutely essential to the book's success. Far from being "filler," these chapters explain (albeit between the lines) why Krakauer was so obsessed with the tragedy of Chris McCandless, and shed a great amount of (indirect) light on McCandless's motivations.
The writing techniques and structural strategies Krakauer employs in this book are quite sophisticated and somewhat risky, and will no doubt pass over the heads of some readers, but I think the risks Krakauer took are worth it, and the book succeeds brilliantly when all is said and done. Into the Wild will one day be recognized as one of the classics of twentieth century American literature. If you read it, I guarantee it will get under your skin. You will not be able to stop thinking about Chris McCandless.
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