"Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer – Staring Over the Edge

In 1992 a young man by the name of Christopher McCandless made all the headlines for the most tragic reasons: he gave away all that he had, got rid of all the Earthly possessions he could think of, headed off into the American wild, and was found dead four months after the start of his adventure in April.

Needless to say, he became the source of a national obsession, with countless people pouring their resources in reconstructing not only his great adventure in the wilderness, but also the mindset that pushed him to such incredible extremes.

In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer does just that, attempting to depict a complete picture of McCandless life before and after his ill-fated journey.

As one would expect, Krakauer begins by looking at the socio-economic context in which McCandless was raised, taking care to describe the people who surrounded him, his relationships with his family members, his own personal tendencies and philosophies... etc... etc...

Basically, it could be called an attempt to retrace the development of his mind to form a psychological portrait, one that could potentially explain why he made the decisions he did.

There are more and more details to be found as Krakauer approaches to the start of McCandless' quest, up to the smaller, mundane activities that he would perform for the last time.

Naturally, there is a lack of concrete evidence and documentation as to what Christopher did once he was on his own, with there being many blanks that could only be filled in with the power of imagination.

Nevertheless, we get a relatively detailed account, all things considered, of how he tried to survive in vain while relinquishing himself to the experience of being all alone in the great American wilderness.

To being with, it has to be said that most of the details we find in this book that aren't to be found elsewhere are somewhat superfluous and don't offer all that much insight into the person, but are rather used to build atmosphere, and in many cases, draw empathy from the reader.

What the book does rather well is bring together all the known facts about the unusual case and lay them out in a neat chronological order, assembling them in a narrative that reads like a story you'd expect to find in a novel.

That is to say, if you have already been doing your fair share of research into the case, it is highly unlikely that you'll make worthwhile discoveries to shine the light on some of its mysteries.

Christopher McCandless

While certainly a treasure trove of information that isn't derailed all that much into sentimentality, Krakauer's own personal opinions do shine rather brightly, and they are of a somewhat controversial nature. While the author iconizes McCandless as being a paragon of self-reliance, a hero who bravely pushed the limit like no one else could, many believe it to be quite different.

It is known that Christopher was very ill-prepared for his adventure, having virtually no survival knowledge or any ideas of what to do once he got out there... something many survivalists warned him of when he was still alive.

In other words, many see him is a foolish young man whose psychological state and hubris led to a very tragic and avoidable demise... a cautionary tale for everyone out there.

All in all, though there are certainly some faults to be found in Into the Wild, it remains nevertheless a gripping account of a unique life that will continue to capture our imaginations for many years to come.

If you aren't very familiar with McCandless' story, this is certainly a good start to your acquaintance with him.

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Jon Krakauer Personal site Jon Krakauer is a writer and a professional mountaineer who is known for his numerous non-fiction books about the outdoors and other, perhaps more controversial subjects. They include Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven and Where Men Win Glory.