Into the Wild by John Krakauer

If you looked at the blog last week, you probably saw some odd things happening. Sorry - but Blogspot had some troubles. Their hosted blogs were down for a day or so and they lost some of the edits from that time. I've tried to recover all that was put on the blog. Hopefully it was not too off-putting!

Into the Wild, John Krakauer (3.5)

‘Into the Wild’ is the true story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who abandoned family, friends and possessions in order to live off the land on a 2 year adventure culminating in a trip to Alaska and his eventual death.  It is a sad and bittersweet story where you struggle to understand his drivers and his demons.  He has the typical 20-something idealistic tendencies, but comes across as an anomaly of smart-college graduate with manners versus hippy hitchhiking bum.  His charisma is enticing to all who meet him on his travels, but his stubborn nature and youthful feelings of invincibility appear to be his downfall.  John Krakauer always tells a good story, though this one may be too close to home.  I struggled with being annoyed at his inserted personal stories to appreciating his point of view, given their similar stories.  I also struggled with the rating for this book.  I think the book is very interesting and recommend it to anyone who likes adventure stories, but I have a hard time giving a ‘4’ if I had said anything negative in the review.