Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996)

I read this book, twice. I have purchased copies for each of my grandchildren to read when they are old enough to think critically about what happened here. This is my opinion of the book from which a motion picture was recently released:

A riveting, almost incredulous but true story of a modern day, idealistically-driven, young man in the cut, mentally, of a Jack London or Henry Thoreau. But Chris McCandless, in my opinion, stood head-and-shoulders above either of these literary icons. Why? Because McCandless was not just mentally, but practically and pragmatically, so much more authentic than either London or Thoreau. He actually lived out his aesthetic calling completely and risked so much more than either London or Thoreau. That's probably the essence of his tragic story.

Some in the 49th State have demeaned this young man's motives and capabilities; however, having read the book, I believe he made his pilgrimage into the wild after two years of wanderlust preparation, exactly the way he had intended, albeit without the resultant outcome for which he had hoped.

What precipitated the one, ultimately fatal error he made was his reliance on authoritative intelligence, which was, ironically, something he had heretofore purposefully disregarded almost entirely. Instead of listening to self-proclaimed experts, he acquired knowledge on the road and in the wild himself, first-hand. So, many Alaskans have been of the opinion that his characteristic disregard for the advice and direction of others, his doing it his own way as it were, was arrogant, foolhardy and led to the young man's demise. They seem to figure he got what he deserved because he didn't listen to good advice from people who knew Alaska better than he did. What they (these Alaskans who demean this young man's motives) seem to overlook is that, ironically, the root cause and clearly the most likely harbinger of his ultimate, tragic death, was culled from a book written by an expert on the Alaskan wild! The information he banked on provided by this expert, likely due to an omission at worst or the authority's lack of thorough subject knowledge at best, sent McCandless past the point of no return. For certainly, had this error been avoided, and despite other less-critical mistakes on his part, it seems that almost certainly he would have survived his pilgrimage for two more weeks.

This was a required reading in my college English class, normally I don't even read the assignments, but as soon as I read the first page I was hooked. I read this book in about 5 hours, straight through. I am going to be reading it a second time in the near future! A+

The book inspired me to read it after i read about a story in a magazine.The book tells of a young man who wanted to live off the land and discover himself but would not take advice from experienced friends.