I now walk into the wild!. Review on Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer

For a few minutes, the roof of the bus remains visible among the stunted trees, a tiny white gleam, in a wild green sea, growing smaller and smaller, and then its gone. When Alexander Supertramp, moves into that Alaskan wilderness, he may not known his future, but what he faced was pure nature at its wild best, and then...

the book and the plot: "Into the Wild" is a biography of a real guy named Chris McCandles, written by Jon Krakauer, after his unwelcomed death on August 18th, 1992. This book was printed by PAN Books, and is available everywhere, on flipkart, it costs Rs.154. It tells the story of Chris, who in his early twenties, after doing his graduation, left everything behind and went on an unending journey, of which the destination was Alaska, the wildest and farthest state of America. He left everything behind, his family (Walt, Billie, Carine), his money (25000$ given to charity), his education (he was genious at graduation), and his name too (changed name to Alexander Supertramp). And in the way, he met many disasters, made many new unknown relationships, made many fans, but in the end, met his own end, and died. He was suffering from the feeling which a youth can suffer when they were asked what to do by their parents, but in the end, he came to know about his need for family, and he wanted to come back, but due to a small mistake, he ate poisoned seeds of a non-poisoned wild potato, and died of hunger cost by it. He left a journal, wrote many things about his daily activities, on back of a book, which later found, with his body, packed in a sleeping bag, 19 days after by some hunters. And another mountaineer-cum-journalist Jon Krakaeur wrote the book on him, by finding all the facts. In the book, he covered many other climbers and adventurers (including himself), their fatal and good expereinces, many of them are youths, and tried to compare Chris with them, about his mind, and his thinking. The Book has 18 chapters in all spread over 202 pages. I completed it in 8 days (today). Every chapter wither have an excerpt from adventure book, which Chris took on his voyage, and highlighted that para, or the excerpts suited best to the chapter.

the author: Jon Krakauer born on 12th april 1954 and is a mountaineer too (writer and journalist is his other occupations). He has written non-fiction books like Into The Wild, Into Thin Air (my next!), Under the banner of Heaven, and Where men Win Glory. This book was first published in 1996. (Taken from Wikipedia)

The Positives: 1. Wonderful read, and if you love adventure (doing or reading), ths book is for you. All incidents written are true to the fact, with nothing boasted, just simple adventures, giving you a feeling of the wild, plus of your family.

1. Written in simple language is one more plus point, as reader just got engaged with the adventres (good one or bad one) right away.

2. Not much lengthy, just 202 pages.

3. Well arranged chapter, like a novel, last days adventures came in starting chapters as well as in the end chapters too, all arranged neatly.

The Negatives: 1. Many experiences mixed in one book, it means that book is completely not a memoir of just one guy, although all memoirs are used to prove, and to find out the mentality of the guy in question.

1. It may impose feelings of loneliness on you, mind it, but you must be solid in your mentality, as it may inspire you to start your own journey.

I had seen the movie version "Into the Wild" directed by Sean Penn (Remember the oscar award winning actor of the movie Milk) 2-3 years ago. That was a little boring movie, but it inspire me to find the real book/story behind it. Books are always a better medium to get the whole story, and it was proved to me, when I read the novel version of "Lord of the Rings", that was the best adventure book, I've ever read, and a long one too, but reading the book gave me a new feeling, since many new things I found in it, which was not covered even by the 9 hrs long 3 movie parts. So I was sure, I'll find much in this book too. I got it last month through Flipkart, and hence I'm here. Do read it, and find a new adventure for yourself (4/5 for me).

I now walk into the wild.

GRuchirG.