For book club, it was my month to choose our reading
material. I decided to read something I’ve been meaning to read for a while and
just hadn’t gotten around to. On top of that, I wanted to give my co-readers a
choice. I needed something with similar plots or themes. That’s when I decided
on Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. Both by the
same author, on my ‘need to read’ shelf, and adventure writing; I thought
they’d be different than other books we read.
_cover.png)
Into the Wild is a book that stirs up opinions. God
knows it did in book club. Chris McCandless just graduated from Emery and
decided to go on his very own Odyssey out to the west of the United States. The
year is 1992 and Chris didn’t tell anyone where he was going, opting to be like
his favorite writers and spend time in the wild away from civilization. His
ultimate goal: make it to Alaska, the last wilderness, and live off the land.
Along the way, he made friends, had near death experiences, and lived his
idealized life. Unfortunately, there’s a reason it’s an idealized life. Chris
was found outside of Fairbanks, Alaska dead. In Krakauer’s book, we follow
Chris around the country and get to know him the best we can.
I hesitantly picked up this book. All I could think of was,
this kid is dumb. Who burns their money, deserts their family, and goes into
Alaska with very little knowledge of how to live off the land? He deserved what
he got for his arrogance. But then I started reading about McCandless. I
started understanding his longing for nature, the unknown, testing his limits,
and a life-altering trip. I envied his ability to have a philosophy that he
lived by, truly lived by. His ideas were romantic, and as Krakauer points out,
not always based on truth in the case of The Call of the Wild, but there
was something innocent and beautiful in his ideals. I connected with
McCandless. Although I’m not going to hike around the country, I understood the
longing to get out of modern society, with all its distractions, and reconnect
with the beauty and overwhelming power of nature.
The book brought up great discussion points from communing
with nature, ideals, the power of fiction, youth, and stupidity.
I highly recommend this book to the adventure-seeker or
nature-lover. Maybe you will hate McCandless for being a selfish kid. Maybe
you’ll love the idea of traveling without expectation or limits. It was
surprising how much I enjoyed this book while still having reservations about
the main character. If you’ve seen the movie, give the book a try. I’ve heard
they paint two different pictures.
If you liked this book and want others like it here are my
suggestions:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments