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| January 2011 Pick. Meeting on Jan 16th. | |
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc- Publishers Weekly
This is January 2011 Pick. Meeting on Jan 16th.
Thoughts on ‘Into the Wild’:
ReplyDeleteSo, was Chris McCandless a selfish wild child, who lived and died for himself with such staggering carelessness? I would disagree; there’s too much evidence in the book as proof of his caring and generosity. The problem that most of us might have with Chris would be his callous disregard of his family’s feelings. Again, without pointing any accusing fingers, there is enough confirmation in the book that his parents would never have accepted his choice of lifestyle.
I feel that after finishing his university education, Chris saw an opportunity to live out his dreams, unfettered by any obligations to anyone else – and he seized that chance, and lived joyously in the time that was given to him. Not all of us are lucky enough to recognize the openings given to us. Even fewer are bold enough to take the road less travelled.