Into the Wild

Into the Wild
Author: Jon Krakauer
Star Rating: ☆☆☆ ☆
By Emily Lehl
 Review:

“The older person does not realize the soul-flights of the adolescent”, observation made by a friend of the author. The friend notes “how difficult it is for those of us preoccupied with the humdrum concerns of adulthood to recall how forcefully we were once buffeted by the passion and longings of youth”.   Chris McCandless was straight out of college when he went on his epic journey of discovering the wild world on his own.  Jon Krakauer literary novel, Into the Wild, is about McCandeless’ tragic death and the mystery of the whys behind his journey.  

                Jon Krakauer was also like the free-spirited McCandless but unlike McCandless he survived his journey. Krakauer feels compelled to help us understand McCandless’ spirit and reasoning behind his journey into the wild. One has to admire Krakauer devotion to the research he did in understanding his character and writing this novel. He introduces the story in a unique way by telling the reader the tragic ending upfront but giving us questions as to why. From there is moves on to establish a relationship of our understanding into the mind of McCandles. We are able to travel alongside him in his adventure by meeting the people he established relationships with. We get to experience life on the road with him from South Dakota wheat fields to the Mexican Baja and into the Alaskan wildernest.   Krakauer does an excellent job of setting the stage to understanding the mindset of McCandless.  

                This book is full of the descriptive experiences McCandless had on his risk-taking journey.  Krakauer tells the story as if he was on the journey alongside McCandless.  He followed in McCandless’ footsteps and leaves the reader with an epic adventure and solves the mystery into his death.  Into the Wild is for everyone who enjoys a story about travel, adventure and self discovery. Krakauer is able to help ignite our adventurous spirit through McCandless’ epic journey while sitting in the comforts of our home.