Book Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Rating: 3.5 (out of 4)

(Caution: spoilers below)

First impressions can be deceiving. I was well into this book before author Jon Krakauer was able to convince me this was not a story about a naïve immature idiot who wandered into the Alaskan wilderness, only to be found dead four months later. Rather, this is a story of a brave, young, ideologue whose commitment to his values are worthy of deep examination, despite the tragedy of the final outcome.

Krakauer first covered the story of Christopher McCandless (a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp) for Outside magazine in 1995, shortly after the story was picked up in the Alaskan press. His coverage led to a flurry of interest, but also became a very polarizing issue. Was McCandless a naïve and reckless kid who underestimated the harshness of the Alaskan wilds, or was he a bold, young voice, who met a tragic end despite his virtuous pursuit of his own “Alaskan Odyssey”? Krakauer does a great job of letting the readers decide for themselves, but it’s definitely clear in what camp Krakauer falls.

Krakauer reveals there were two key pieces of misinformation from the original Outside article, which when re-examined, potentially change the readers perception of McCandless. First, the article cites the fact that hunters who found him cited errors in his journal of a moose he shot and lived off of for several weeks – insisting that the kid didn’t know the difference between a caribou and a moose. It was indeed a moose as McCandless recorded. Second, the belief at the time was that the fatal malnutrition and dehydration was the result of feeding on a poisonous type of seed that is commonly found in the wild – a seemingly “rookie” move. It turns out there were no known recordings of the toxicity of the seeds which eventually did the young adventurer in. Krakauer debunks both of those myths, providing a much more sophisticated view of a young idealist who burned his belongings, canoed the Colorado river till it met the Baja California (with just a 5 pound bag of rice), and eventually set out to follow in the footsteps of his own heroes – Kerouac, London, Tolstoy, and Thoreau – testing the boundaries of life on the fringe of society.

McCandless is a young man whose life is worthy of such examination. He truly marched to the beat of his own drummer. Was he a prophet – no, but no reader can close this book without being inspired to re-examine their own life and reliance on material possessions, addictions, and unhealthy relationships. Krakauer, who has made a career out of profiling individuals who don’t fit into the mold of our traditional archetypes, certainly does McCandless justice in this inspiring book. I’d highly recommend it to anyone brave enough to take the journey into introspection and self examination.