#33 - Into the Wild

I was kind of underwhelmed. It was a decent book, tho I'm not sure there was really enough material for an actual book, or that the story was compelling enough for an actual book ...

It's the story of Chris McCandless, a twenty-something kid from a well-to-do family whose wanderlust outstripped his common sense. He took off (totally unprepared) on a solo trip into the Alaskan interior and he died. Yeah, that's an oversimplification, but, stripped of romanticism, that's what happened.

I think the author needed McCandless' death to be more meaningful than it was; I'm not belittling the tragedy of death, or the heartbreak Chris' family experienced (and must still experience). But to make a hero out of a self-involved kid who put his own dreams/desires first, who ignored his family and left them no clue he was alive or dead for years, who willingly and blithely walked into the wilds of Alaska without being even remotely prepared for what he'd face ... it's just dishonest.

The author (Jon Krakauer) shared some of Chris McCandless' dreams and exploits, and admittedly was not an unbiased biographer. It felt like the author - in drawing parallels between his experiences, McCandless' experiences and the experiences of a few other men (always men) who followed their bliss into the wild - was attempting to make the acts into something more meaningful, almost transcendent.

What the author, and his self-styled contemporaries, fail to appreciate, in my opinion, is that "The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it" - running away into the wild and climbing mountains doesn't make you braver or better than anyone else.