Rating: 
Summary: Lust for Adventure
Review: The best books are the ones that leave you vaguely disturbed and somewhat unsettled. Just like leaving the movie, "Evita", humming "You Must Love Me", you will find your mind returning again and again to this haunting story and the in-depth way that Jon Krakauer brings us further and further into the deeper realms of Christopher McCandless' psyche.
I, like many people, was somewhat unsympathetic upon first hearing of Christopher's death in the bus in the far reaches of Alaska. I thought of him as stupid for going so poorly prepared, but the book changed my opinion about the person as well as the circumstances surrounding his death. Mr. Krakauer managed to give us the facts, the feelings and the humanity surrounding the adventure without dipping into the maudlin or sensational. Simply put, the author reached further and pulled out a higher truth.
I have a lust for the road that cannot be explained in my day to day existance. I found that Krakauer's book, "Into The Wild" helped me to understand my own need for adventure and dropping the social conventions. It had a healing touch which suprised me.
I'm sure you who have a passion for exploring and leaving civilization behind with find this book fascinating and real.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This book was wonderful. Given that it was written about an Emory University alumnus, I was particularly intrigued by it. It kept my attention and I read it in less than two days. I recommend it to anyone who likes to read
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, thoughtful book
Review: John Krakauer has written a remarkable book about the life and death of an enigmatic young wanderer and idealist who met his demise in the Alaskan bush. I've known Krakauer's writing from my 20+ years of reading Outside magazine, and the article on which this book expands -- and his account of the Mt. Everest tragedy -- rank among the best the magazine has offered. In this book, the author has taken his exhaustive research of Christopher/Alex McCandless' life and retold it with such clarity that one feels a part of the events. Krakauer also skillfully draws on the lives of other young men -- and, indeed, his own life experiences -- to explore the idealism and sense of adventure and longing for self-discovery that led Chris into the circumstances that led to his death by starvation. As one who aspired to the kinds of adventures Chris lived out for the final few years of his life -- but never took the bold step of hitting the road in search of them -- I was greatly moved by the telling of this story. The astonishing honesty and introspection by the writer and the family and friends of Chris McCandless makes this an unforgettable story. Krakauer was criticized by many Outside readers for "glorifying" the story of Chris McCandless' death in the original magazine article (and he answers these critics' points very effectively over the course of the book), but I think anyone will find this an absorbing, thoughtful, and revealing book. And for those of us with a bit of Chris' wanderlust and search for freedom in our past (repressed or not), this should rank near the top of the must-read list
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: If you are to read only two books in your life first read Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" which glamourizes this particular lifestyle. Immediately upon putting that book down, pick up "Into the Wild" . . . this book will definatly put things into perspective! Either way they are both excellent books
Rating:
Summary: A disturbing study of brilliance and idealism gone awry.
Review: If you remeber Chris McCandless, it is probably from the news stories or the widely read Outside magazine piece by this author. McCandless, if you remeber, was found by moose hunters in an abandoned bus near Mount McKinley in Alaska where had starved to death. His parents had not heard of him or from him for two years. At the outset,the author begins a search for explainations of Chirs Mc Candless, his estrangement from family and Society, and his lonely death. But as he goes on, Krankauer extends his efforts to a type of which McCandless is but a recent represnetative. As revealed by Krakauer, McCandless is but one a quietly desparate class of wanders, vagabonds and near mystics that inhabit the roads and backwaters of American, a class which he Krakauer also joined early in his life. Like many a mystic vagabond, Chris was startllingly brilliant and talented. But he was a young man incapable of accepting the world for the the rather unethical, sub-moral place it is. But, rather than rush off on a crusade against injustice he precieved, McCandless truned his sights inward. It is choice of viewpoint that lead to his death.
A subtile mix of visionary, genius and wounded son, Chris is not all that differrent from the people we all meet. Half way through the book his image began to blur with memories of a highly talented friend who dropped out of Stanford Grad school for a life as a full time "valley climber" in Yosemite. But what makes the book so chilling is that we never get a definitive answer as to why Chris followed his ultimately fatal route through life. McCandless' background is not all that horrible, although it is not strewn with roses, either. Yet many others, with far more reason to follow in his footsteps, avoid the downward slope Chris choose and become happy and productive people.
The disturbing, and unanswered question of this book reamins. Who are the McCandlesses of the future, where are they now and, for we parents, do we have a Chris McCandless under our own roof?
Rating: 
Summary: Moving account of the dichotomy that exsists within us all
Review: Jon Krakauer does an excellent job of combining a memorial of Christopher McChandless,an accurate anaylsis of what motivated Christopher McChandless to do what he did, and what
could drive all of us to do the same thing. Right up there with Jack London and Farley Mowat. A must read for anyone who
fights that inner battle of being one with society or being
one with nature!
Rating:
Summary: Boy Lost
Review: Krakauer has written a neat little book for the parents of young men. There have always been post adolescent boys too smart and too intelligent to live in modern society without somekind of cathartic journey to define their inner self. Chris, the subject of Mr. KrakauerĂs attention, is specifically that kind of young man; he rejects his past and starts his journey towards his own personal Siddartha. Jon, Chris and I and everyman I now know have all done this; most of the time we go to College, or join th
Rating:
Summary: Young Men and the Wilderness
Review: I was intrigued by the Outside article a couple years ago,
and had always wondered more about the circumstances that
had brought had brought Christopher/Alex there. The book
does answer as many of the questions as can be answered, but does wander
somewhat off track into the author's own experences and
other similiar cases. Though interesting, it detracts from
the main point.
Colin Fletcher's book _The Man from the Cave_ would appeal
to anyone who found this book interesting; Fletcher finds
an old trunk in a cave out in the middle of the wilderness,
and spends the next decade tracking down who this person
was, and what motivated them to do what they did. His own
introspection mixes well with the rest of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting mix of first and third-person exploration.
Review: _Into the Wild_ is a good read, but frustrating. It is part
confession, part narrative, and part meditation on what
motivates people-- generally young men-- to make
high risk journeys. Krakauer is at his best when he is
able to suspend rumination, and make the imaginative leap
into the queer, bright, grandiose mind of Chris McCandless,
who starved to death in Alaska after choosing to neglect
almost every common sense measure for wilderness survival.
Krakauer's own autobiographical chapters illuminate his own long entanglement with risk, but tend to break up the main story. As with Krakauer's articles in _Outside_ magazine,
I wished for a strong editor, and one good rewrite.
Rating:
Summary: The dark side of idealism
Review: Last Christmas I gave this book to my father. I thought he might enjoy the adventures of Alex (though you know from the start his life will end badly), and thought if things went well I might use this to try to explain to him why it is that I spend all my extra money on travel and why I do illogical things in pursuit of my dreams. His reaction, though, was nothing but frustration with Alex's "idiocy." The difference between my response to the book - that Chris/Alex lived an extreme form of the longing I and many others feel - and my father's response is the same gulf that this story seeks to bridge. Jon Krakauer, who has also sacrificed a great deal and risked his life in pursuit of his dreams, clearly feels some sympathy for Alex's wild decisions. But the result of Alex's tramping is his own death and the heartbreak that ensues, which seems to outweigh any selfish satisfaction Alex may have received from his experiences. When people create great art or invent something remarkable, society celebrates their achievements in spite of any collateral damage. But Alex is an example of someone whose idealism was far greater than his accomplishments. The art he left behind in his notebooks is unremarkable, and the few friends he made in his travels have not been catalysts for improvement in the world. His one success (or failure) was that he was able to unbind himself from his expected, normal life and give himself wholly to his ideals. So many of us secretly wish that we had the courage to do something similar, and this book forces us to confront that desire. Is the pursuit of a dream a worthwhile end, in and of itself? There are no clear answers, in this book or in life, but the question is worth asking, no matter whether you see Alex as someone to be admired or throttled.
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