Into the Wild by Jon KrakauerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book I've seen on countless "must-read" or "favorites" book lists. I've had this on my shelf for quite a while and when I recently saw in the news that the now famous bus where the protagonist Chris McCandless died in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 90's was removed due to being a dangerous location where others have made treks to see because of the book’s fame. I finally decided it was time to pull it off the shelf. I was glad I did.
It is the story of the retracing and trying to understand Alex McCandless and his journey across America after shunning his family and then civilization he lived upon land living upon edges of the society he scoffed at. I couldn't help draw a similarity to Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" which was about a journey across America on the edge of society that also caught people’s imagination.
After finishing college Alex pretty much left everything behind. Donated his $25K his parents gave him and packed up his beat-up Datsun and hit the road. He had often done this in the past but this time he had next to nothing pulling him back, not even family. He spent the next two years floating between society and loner. He eventually abandoned the car after it was flooded by a flash flood and hitchhiked, walked, and even used a canoe for a bit. He would connect with certain people along the way often making a big connection with them in even a short amount of time. They were often left curious and puzzled about how this intelligent, well-read, and hard-working young man was traveling like this.
He eventually ends up in Alaska for the adventure he’d been working up to. He set out and “into the wild” as were his last words he sent to an acquaintance. Tragically four months later he would be found starved to death in an abandoned bus which had been his base. The story is a retracing of his steps, as much as possible, and a deeper goal of trying to figure out his motivation and why he did this.
His journey seemed to have elements of past literary classics like “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac’s journey across the western states of America and also Robert Pirsig’s “The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenace” for the same reason(I believe Alex McCandless was found with this book). Another that came to mind was Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger as the book has strong elements of a coming of age story and disenchantment with society in general.
There is also a strong element of a father-son conflict, even though Alex left everyone behind his relationship with his Dad seemed to be the lynchpin of some underlying resentment of past family matters. Alex’s closest relationship seemed to be with his sister(much like Holden Caulfield in Cather in the Rye mentioned previously) but even she was left in the dark as to his whereabouts.
Alex was not without his faults either. He seemed to have a stronger desire to do things on his own, or at least figure things out on his own. He did well in school and had a strong motivation to figure stuff out but as soon as someone offered help or tried to help him excel further he would shun or just ignore them. This trait would come back to haunt him later.
The book is well written and will stay with you long after you finish it. I can see a bit clearer why this was such a talked-about book. I’ll be hanging on to this one and will probably reread it in the future. Did Chris McCandless ever find what he was looking for? We may never know for sure.
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