Critical book review on Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

The novel Into the Wild told a story about a young man by the name of Chris McCandless from a well to do family abandoning his current life to create a new lifestyle for him in the wild. He decided to embark on an adventure in the Alaskan wild, but unfortunately the Stampede Trail in Alaska became his final resting place. The book portrayed McCandless’ story through the journals the he wrote as traveled as well as the different perspectives of the people he met along the way. I think this novel is well written because of the fact that the author clearly described each story of Chris’ life through the eyes of the people he met; he did it without confusing the reader. I think the way he told Chris’ story is a fresh new way; it is definitely a new reading experience for me.

The way Krakauer wrote the plot of the book wasn’t exactly chronological he skipped around the journey that Chris’ took. He started near the end then went back to the middle and then the beginning it was hard to follow at first, but I enjoyed putting the pieces together as I read to create the overall picture he was trying to write about. I also liked the extra commentary of the people that he interviewed about Chris; it was a new way of getting another story connected to the main plot of the book and the people that Chris met throughout his journey gave you important information about Chris’ psyche. They told you that Chris wasn’t just some nut whose foolhardiness drove him to Alaska; he was actually a really intelligent man. He graduated college and had a good family, but Chris said he was tired of his repetitive mundane life so he went and made a new life for himself on the road. The people’s commentaries about Chris gave the reader another thing to think about.

Overall I think this book was good, but not great enough to call it one of my favorite reads of time. It portrayed the story in a confusing but interesting way. The way the author wrote every scene in this book was full detail so you could really picture the events in your mind. I would recommend this book to those who love reading about survival and interested in adventures in the great outdoors. It’s a pretty good book.