Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer

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Book Reviews of Into the Wild

Book Review: Fascinating Story Marred by Author's Self-absorbed Approach
Summary: 4 Stars

As in his latest bestseller "Into Thin Air," author Jon Krakauer tells this tale with such careful attention that seemingly insignificant details become loaded with ominous import.

But even more than in his most recent work, in "Into the Wild" Krakauer's pomposity nearly destroys the book. Why in the world must we traipse our way through two chapters in which he laments his troubled relationship with his father and brags about a boring and ungraceful solo mountain climb? And though he exposes McCandless family secrets of a very intimate sort, when he compares his family to theirs he brushes over the details with vague allusions. It is galling to see him hang out another family's dirty laundry and then avoid exposing his own.

Krakauer's conviction that he has the right to include himself in the story is so errant that it taints his credibility from there on out.

Still, the detailed recounting of the days leading up to McCandless' walk into the Alaskan "wilderness," and of the final days of his life, are very compelling. Also fascinating are the stories about other men in history who have made treks into the Western wilderness with similarly ill-fated results.

If Jon Krakauer could check his self-absorption at the door, his books would be among the most-required reading of the current day.

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