Into the Wild Summary and Reviews

Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $6.09
You Save: $8.86 (59%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.40 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Jon Krakauer
Brand: Krakauer
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-21
ISBN: 0307387178
Number of pages: 207
Publisher: Anchor

Book Reviews of Into the Wild

Book Review: "God it's great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you."
Summary: 5 Stars

What a sad tale. Having first seen the movie, I wanted to know more and so read Krakauer's book. The book, of course, gives many more essential details the movie never goes into, such as the devious behavior of Chris McCandless's father, and perhaps the real cause of Chris' tragic death.

I haven't read any of the over 1000 reviews posted here. I get the sense, though, that some people find this story unworthy of being told, or that Krakauer is somehow biased in the telling of it. I disagree completely. This story is one that is happening every day. At some turning point in our lives, we faced a decision: to join up with society and seek success within it or to rush into the great unknown, for whatever reason. In Chris' case, he turned his inner turmoil into a spiritual quest for the new, the beautiful, the extraordinary, and the natural world which would somehow remove him from the corruption of his own existence, as polluted by his father and mother.

I think Krakauer does a fantastic job in immersing us in Chris' passionate life. Almost no detail is spared. And parallels to Chris are given with others who have attempted to live in the wild, away from society's soft pleasures and easy ways. Yet no one was quite like this kid. One cannot help but think what he might have become: a fanatic Obama supporter? A deeply religious monk? A great social worker? A devoted father? A Green Peace leader? It's almost a certainty, however, that whatever he would have done, he would have thrown his heart and soul into it.

There's no doubt that his sad, lonely death was an accident. As a father myself, I look on this book as a cautionary tale and a warning. Our children certainly are beyond our control at some point down the line, so all one can do as a parent is just be there for them, as nonjudgmentally as is humanly possible. No one was able to stop Chris from his path to Alaska, but one senses he was gaining much-needed wisdom out there in the wilderness. He was on his way back. That is the overwhelming tragedy here: the finality of his frivolous death.

We are reminded again and again in this book of "the soul-flights of the adolescent" and the glorious ideals harbored within his or her uncompromising being. Extraordinary quotes from the works of Thoreau, Pasternak, Jack London, and others are intermingled with the overwrought writings of Chris himself. How can we not feel empathy for his troubled spirit and his longing heart? Ironically, one of the last stories he read was Tolstoy's "Family Matters." Perhaps that title holds more meaning for all of us than we realize.

Adventurers & Explorers Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Adventurers & Explorers Books
Aaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East ImageAaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East
by Patricia Goldstone
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2007-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $26.00
The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party ImageThe Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party
by Kelly Tyler-Lewis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: $15.00
Voyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries ofthe English Nat (Penguin English Library) ImageVoyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries ofthe English Nat (Penguin English Library)
by Richard Hakluyt
Penguin Classics; Published: 1972-07-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $17.00
Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer ImageYounghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer
by Patrick French
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2004-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.26
Price in other shops: $17.95
The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears ImageThe Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears
by Nick Jans
Dutton Adult; Published: 2005-07-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $24.95
View from the Summit ImageView from the Summit
by Edmund Hillary
San Val; Published: 2000-05; School & Library Binding; Book
Best price: $26.90
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest ImageThe Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
by Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston Dewalt
St Martins Pr; Published: 1997-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops: $24.95
Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions ImageDragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions
by Charles Gallenkamp
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2002-03-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: $15.00
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia ImageEat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.10
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Oregon Trail (Penguin American Library) ImageThe Oregon Trail (Penguin American Library)
by Francis Parkman
Penguin Classics; Published: 1982-12-16; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.16
Price in other shops: $16.00
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Timaeus and Critias (Penguin Classics) ImageTimaeus and Critias (Penguin Classics)
by Plato
Penguin Classics; Published: 2008-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.52
Price in other shops: $12.00
Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings (Norton Critical Editions) ImageWalden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings (Norton Critical Editions)
by Henry D. Thoreau
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.82
Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity ImageNovice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity
by Soko Morinaga
Wisdom Publications; Published: 2002-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $11.95
Prometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) ImagePrometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
by Aeschylus
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1990-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.68
Price in other shops: $12.95
Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics) ImageTheogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
by Hesiod
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-07-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $11.95
Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition) ImageTravels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2002-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops: $15.00
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains ImageEiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
by Jon Krakauer
Lyons Press; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops: $14.95
Blood on the Forge (New York Review Books Classics) ImageBlood on the Forge (New York Review Books Classics)
by William Attaway
NYRB Classics; Published: 2005-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops: $14.95
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster ImageInto Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
Random; Anchor; Published: 1999-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: $15.00
Into the Wild ImageInto the Wild
HIRSCH,EMILE; Release date: 2008-03-04; DVD
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: $12.98