A good novel consists of amusing characters, adventure, danger, and a main character with whom you sympathize with. Yet this story is no work of fiction; it a true story based on the escapade of Chris McCandless. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer tells the story of a young man in his early twenties who gives up everything he owns to go on the adventure of a lifetime. He burns all his cash and donates all the money in his bank account to charity. He changes his name from Chris to Alex and tracks across the country. His ultimate aim is to camp out in the Alaskan wilderness and along the way he meets and assortment of interesting people, whom he leaves with a lasting impression.
Chris’s adventure ends tragically and the book revolves discovering what happened to lead to such tragic ends and understanding what drove Chris to take such extreme measures. The author, Jon Krakauer is a journalist who originally wrote a feature article for Outside magazine on the story of Chris McCandless on Chris’s story but was so touched by the story decided to expand on the article by writing a book about Chris’s adventure. He shapes the story of the book on the accounts of the people Chris met along the way, Chris’s family, and the journal Chris wrote in while he was on his voyage.

Into the Wild will leave you debating if you should sympathize at Chris’s tragic end or criticize his naïveté and self-assurance. Whether you should you applaud his strong sense of values and ethics or call him foolish and headstrong. Wonder where his strong desire to be self-sufficient came from; and, whether Chris was an extraordinary young man or a complete nutcase. Into the Wild is a true page-turning story that will have you on the edge of your seat