Alone in the wilderness

Having read his book Under the Banner of Heaven (see here for a review) I thought that I would read other books by the investigative journalist Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild is a book for which he is very well known and it has, I understand, been made into a film.

This short book is about the life of a young man, Chris McCandless, who, in 1992 walked into Alaska to live on his own. He found an aged caravan left over from a mining development in the area and set up home. Some months later his body was found – he had starved to death.

The author looks at McCandless’s life and his urge to escape from his family and every tie he had and live at one with nature. He was young but he wasn’t reckless or negligent although he seemed to be very optimistic. He travelled around the USA, taking work where he could find it, making a lot of friends and slowly divesting himself of everything he owned. Alaska was his dream.

The author examines how he came to die and shows that it was through a series of misadventures and unfortunate instances. The place he was living in was accessed across a river which he crossed easily on arrival but which soon became impassable. There was at least one other way out of the area but McCandless had no maps. He made mistakes in the food he chose to eat and soon became too weak to hunt.

The story of the young man’s life and death is told through the testimony of his friends and the diary that he left behind him. We might see it as a short life but he felt fulfilled and as though he had achieved something.

It seems like the subject matter of this story is too slight for a book but the author does brilliantly in introducing the reader to the lives of those who live in this way and also to McCandless himself. This is a cracking biography.