Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer

There are books I read and enjoy immensely, and then there are books I devour.

I devoured INTO THE WILD, by Jon Krakauer, finding myself basically unable to set it down in the days I was reading it.

INTO THE WILD is the story of Christopher McCandless, the young man who abandoned all his worldly possessions for a nomadic adventure in the Alaskan wilderness and was found dead in a sleeping bag on the floor of an an abandoned bus by some moose hunters.  It was also the inspiration for the recent film, directed by Sean Penn, and starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless. (Watch it - it’s a great movie.)

A college graduate from an upper middle-class family, McCandless adopted a new identity (Alexander Supertramp) and headed out into the world to live without possessions, without money, without other people, embarking on  a journey that took him from Virginia, to South Dakota, to Mexico, and to where he met his tragic end in the trees in Alaska.

Krakauer was the journalist who wrote the first expose on McCandless back for Outside magazine back in 1992 after the discovery of the body -  and the book, which is an expansion of that article, is brilliantly written. I often appreciate when journalists write books (as Betsy said “They understand that the story is already interesting, and doesn’t need them.”) and Krakauer has an easy style of writing, as well as an obvious deep connection with McCandless. As a young man, Krakauer was inspired as well by the works of Thoreau and others who advised man’s connection with nature, and attempted to climb a mountain, which almost killed him. He argues against people’s complaints that McCandless was dumb, cocky, and perhaps even schizophrenic, instead trying to prove that McCandless was simply just reckless and inspired to try and achieve something that mattered to him, even if it ultimately wound up costing him his life.

Most of McCandless’ story is told through letters, his journal entries, and the recollections of people he met on the way.  Ron Franz, an old man who’s brief time with McCandless caused him to even offer to adopt the boy, offers the most interesting look into Chris’ ideals by sharing the final letter he ever received from the young man.

“..Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

The book raises interesting questions – what could make someone deliberately put themselves so close to death? What drove McCandless away from his family?

It also made me think about my own self – and how I would never be able to survive even a night on the Alaskan wilderness (hell, the Michigan wilderness even) and how really, at the end of the day, that’s alright by me. I love the people around me, and do believe (which McCandless didn’t) that joy comes from connections with others. What’s the point of living without other people?

All that said, I give McCandless mad props for having the balls to even attempt what he did.

The world needs dreamers and visionaries, even the ones who wind up as cautionary tales.