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Into the Wild | 
 enlarge | Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $1.73
You Save: $12.22 (88%)
New (75) Used (258) Collectible (7) from $1.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  1197 reviews
Sales Rank: 2034
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0385486804
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.98045
EAN: 9780385486804
ASIN: 0385486804
Publication Date: January 20, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
"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.
Product Description
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir.In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of hiscash.He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented.Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away.Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.
Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life.Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless.Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.
When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naivete, pretensions, and hubris.He is saidto have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1192 more reviews...
 I finished Wild quickly. September 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
and for me - Jon Krakauer's writing is the kind of stuff that makes for late nights and tired workdays. I can't pay him a higher compliment. This one was a bit different than his other efforts in that Krakuer plays more the role of detective/sociologist rather than an an insightful expedition biographer. However, the story was as rivetting and perhaps even more powerful. I'm anxiously awaiting his next one! I'd also recommend reading Georgiou's masterpiece-- THE FATES, Fates (classic) if you haven't yet. I stumbled upon it at a book store and can't stop talking about it. His writing style is very similar to Jon Krakauer
This Book is Awsome August 31, 2008
This book it s really great if have already seen the movie it doesn't metter cause there so much more in this book and if you close your eyes seems to be on the road with Alex.
~Magnificent Book August 30, 2008
I found this book to be highly engrossing and quite frankly hard to put down, I stayed up till 3 a.m. reading it one night. I think everyone can take something away from this book after reading it which is really a true compliment. I have to wonder about the people who gave this book one star reviews and who call Chris stupid, naive and foolish. People like you have no problem with governments drafting young people for "their" wars only to killed for whatever the goverments cause was. Well Chris died for his own cause and I personally can't fault the man for that. Secondly, each of us in the end has a chance to live life the way they choose or at least how they will approach mentally and this was his choice. We must remember that we are reviewing actual books here and how it was written not the actual person in the book. I want to encourage everyone to read this book and then do some serious thinking afterward taking that inward journey which will only make you stronger.
Into the Wild paperback August 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My 9th grader chose as one of his "optional" summer reading books. I read "Into Thin Air" years ago, so liking Krakauer, gave this one a try. Good, quick, easy read. Well done Jon!
 Not too Great August 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was disappointed in this book. As others have said, it should have remained a magazine article because there really isn't enough substance, in my opinion, for a book. I think the main character was part immature (for a 24 year old man) and part crazy. I had some difficulty following the time-line. It was never real clear to me just exactly what this guy was searching for.
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