Into the Wild

<p>In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.&nbsp;&nbsp;How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of <i>Into the Wild</i>.</p> <p>Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his&nbsp;&nbsp;cash.&nbsp;&nbsp;He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented.&nbsp;&nbsp;Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away.&nbsp;&nbsp;Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.</p> <p>Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life.&nbsp;&nbsp;Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless.&nbsp;&nbsp;Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.</p> <p>When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris.&nbsp;&nbsp;He is said&nbsp;&nbsp;to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, <i>Into the Wild</i> is a <i>tour de force</i>. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.</p>

Author(s): Jon Krakauer  

ISBN 10: 0385486804
ISBN 13: 9780385486804
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Publication: February 1997