Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My sister recommended Into the Wild to me. I guess she got turned on to the book in light of her trip to Alaska (she left yesterday). She'll be spending the summer in Denali national park working for Aramark. It'll be an adventure, but one slightly different from the one portrayed in the book (thank goodness).
Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless. McCandless is an Emory University graduate who takes off after college on a Keroauc-esque journey West that culminates in Alaska. Krakauer does a good job of telling the facts of McCandless' story, giving them context and explanation, and also of delving into McCandless' psyche. I am among the many who enjoyed this book. I think Into the Wild has somewhat mass appeal because everyone has had the desire for adventure and "living off the land" and not worrying about tomorrow/enjoying the moment that McCandless sought. Most of us just haven't abandoned everything to try it out the way McCandless did.
Some quotes:
I thought climbing the Devil's Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.
- Jon Krakauer (reflecting on climbing a glacier in Alaska when he was twenty)
you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may have previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
- Chris McCandless in a letter to his friend "Ron Franz"
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