Into the Wild

When choosing books to read for pleasure, I tend to avoid the nonfiction section of libraries; I like to think of this as my elementary school self controlling my current literary choices. But recently I was tempted by boredom to read Into the Wild, a nonfiction exploration of the life and death of Christopher McCandless by John Krakauer. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the account, which read like an expanded newspaper article (because that’s essentially what it was- Mr. Krakauer is a news writer). I’ve always been fascinated by travel and exploration, so reading about McCandless’ extreme experience was quite interesting. The author provided maps as visual aids, newspaper accounts, countless first-hand interviews from people who met Chris on his travels, entries from Chris’ own diaries, and the author’s speculation on Chris’ motives.
The combination of all these sources of information was a book that was highly digestible; I was surprised and pleased to find that I didn’t want to put the book down. Krakaeuer doesn’t try to overcome me with emotion all at once; instead he builds my investment in Chris throughout the course of the book and leaves me at the end with a sense of touching insight into the troubled young man’s life. Krakaeuer writes how I imagine a true news writer writes. While he speculates extensively about Chris’ motivations, he never belittles the man, whose manic declarations and somewhat selfish actions lend themselves to criticism. He leaves it to me to form my own opinion of Chris. The author’s tone, which was quite sympathetic, made me feel a similar sympathy for Chris, although I felt that his decision to abandon his family without warning was thoughtlessly cruel.
Krakauer made the nonfiction novel even more personal and fascinating by including a chapter in which he details an experience he had that parallels the wilderness exploration of McCandless. He reflects back on his youth, in which he too travelled to Alaska, but instead of living in the wilderness for an extended period of time like McCandless, Krakauer finds himself determined to climb a dangerous mountain peak that had never been climbed before. After an intensely difficult and miserable experience, the author manages to reach the peak. The inclusion of this experience was absolutely vital to the novel in my opinion, because I got a first-hand glimpse into the mindset of a young man similar to McCandless; I got to hear about how nature challenges some people, how some are inexplicably drawn to the wilderness and to the danger that the wild offers.
I really enjoyed reading about McCandless, who may or may not have been crazy, but was certainly a fascinating person. I was overwhelmed by reading of his life and death, not so much with grief but with an understanding and empathy for what McCandless felt about his life and the natural world around him. After being so engrossed in the novel, I’m eager to rent the movie adaptation from Netflix and see if it lives up to my expectations!