Review of Into the Wild by Jon Krakeuer

Chris had been described as a smart guy who lived by what he believed in and did the things he wanted to do, so how did he end up dead in the Alaskan wilderness? This is Into the Wild, a true story of the life of Chris McCandless as researched and written by Jon Krakeuer. Chris grew up with his parents and his little sister Carine in a small town. He went to college at Emory and after graduation he decided to pack up and hit the road. He gave all of his savings to charity and burned what remaining cash he had. He told no one his plans of leaving or where he planned to go. He left with the intentions of going into the ultimate wilderness, America’s frontier; Alaska. He wanted to be alone in the wilderness, and to live off the land, and what better place to do that, than Alaska. Chris took up the altar-ego of Alexander Supertramp which would be the name he would carve into the many locations he would visit. He worked and hitchhiked his way throughout the states, making many friends, seeing the country, and spreading his story and plans. But it wasn’t long before he decided it was time to make his way up to Alaska. He hiked into Alaska with a rifle, a bag of rice, a book about edible plants, and only a few other things to keep him going through the time he would be in the wild. But had he forgotten about where he was, about what life he had left behind? Had Chris missed some key elements about living in the wild?

Sadly I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped. I found it to be more like a very long magazine article. I was however, very impressed with the amount of research that went into this book. Krakeuer obviously spent a lot of time piecing together the elements of Chris’s life and ultimately figured out what killed Chris. I have a high amount of respect for Krakeuer’s efforts.  Initially, before I had began reading the book I had thought it was a work of fiction and was a little taken aback by the seemingly fiction-like elements of this novel. I also found that Krakeuer seemed to glamorize what Chris had done, something I daresay did not agree with. To me, Chris had a sort of arrogance and ignorance, which in the end led to his untimely death. I feel Chris’s story should have been presented a little differently. 

I would give this book a 6 out of 10. I really had very high hopes for this book, but I was a bit let down. I feel that the book was dragged out and that after a while I didn’t feel like I was learning anything new. But I know that some people really like this type of story. I recommend it for those who enjoy the likes of My Everest Story or other true-life adventure stories. Sadly, these kind of stories are not my cup of tea.