Into the Wild — Book Summary & Review

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. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die. “It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order.” —Entertainment Weekly McCandess 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. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild recounts a mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story grabbed the world’s attention. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest modeled on the heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He adopted a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unburdened by money and belongings, aimed to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences nature offered. Craving a blank spot on the map, he threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Jon Krakauer builds a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he hunts for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless. When McCandless's innocent mistakes prove irreversible and fatal, he becomes fodder for tabloid headlines and is dismissed for naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish, but wanting to die is a different matter from being compelled to stare at the edge. Krakauer pulls McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with rare understanding—without a trace of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a major act of craft, and Jon Krakauer’s storytelling power cuts through every page.