This book has gained in popularity within the last year when the movie version of it was released. I have to admit that I don’t usually watch movies of books that I like. I usually end up leaving the movie angry that they’ve changed something or it isn’t quite how I had pictured it in my mind. Into The Wild the movie made up for some of what it lacked from book form by the beautiful images of the places that Christopher McCandless traveled.
This is a nonfiction piece of work that is pieced together by the author interviewing many of the people that Christopher McCandless met on his travels as well as letters and journal entries. No one can truly know what happened in the time that he spent in Alaska, but this was a fascinating book that offered a glimpse into the person who came from a privileged family and decided to give everything away and disappear to live by his own means and travel to Alaska.
He left without telling his family his plans, giving his money to charity and leaving his vehicle behind. He hitchiked, kayaked and lived in the simplest terms trying to get to the basics in life. What strikes me in his story are several key things. First is that he lived for his dreams, without fear. He had an idea of what he was trying to attain and he wasn’t scared to go for it. In addition to that, everyone he came across loved him. They talked about his sincerity and his good heart. He made connections with many many people during his travels.
Throughout this book part of me was trying to figure out whether I was appalled by what he did (thinking of how it must have hurt his family) or whether it was something I admired….in moderation. No matter what your reaction to his story, I think it would be hard to read about Christopher McCandless without having one.
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