Hacia rutas salvajes jon krakauer biography

The author does a great job of portraying McCandless complex personality through meticulous research based on interviews, letters and journal entries. The writing is so engaging that although it is already clear from the beginning how McCandless' story would end, I was hooked till the last page. Krakauer only digresses when discussing his own high-risk undertaking and those of ill-fated adventurers similar to McCandless — these parts offer comparison to McCandless' character but I found myself getting impatient and wanting them to end quickly, to return to the main story itself which is much more compelling.

Readers have been divided with regard to this story. Some admire McCandless' daring and idealism; some others say he was stupid, reckless and arrogant enough to have gone to Alaska without sufficient preparation. I think he was a human being with faults and merits, but I have to admit I felt something stirring in me when I read this passage, taken from a letter he wrote to a friend: " So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation I am the queen of conventionalism.

I don't consider myself unhappy, but I'm always afraid of moving outside the comfort zone, of expanding further than my own comfortable little shell. I often don't exert myself to my best capabilities because halfhearted efforts seemed good enough. When I read about McCandless, I noticed that one of his admirable traits is if he wanted something he went out and did it.

He was not afraid of challenges, the greater they are the better. Jason Mraz says "live high, live mighty, live righteously". I think that was what McCandless did: he lived up to his ideals. One the other hand, the greatest tragedy of McCandless' life, in my opinion, was his conflicting feelings toward human intimacy and relationship.

He clashed with his parents and others who didn't share his beliefs to the point that he spurned humanity and sought nature and the wilderness instead. But even during his solitary journeys he met a lot of people and connected with them, touching their lives as well as his own. His final odyssey in Alaska had probably made him realize, more than ever, the raw need for companionship, but he didn't survive that trip — causing endless grief to his family.

So in the end, if there is something I can take from McCandless story, it is this message: Be bold. Get out there. Do something. But don't forget those who love you. This book seems to divide people. One group seems to think McCandless was a visionary; a free-thinking, wild spirit who lived his dream and died an unfortunate, tragic death. The other group thinks he was a stupid kid; an ill-prepared daydreamer who brought his demise upon himself due to his own idiocy.

I think it's entirely possible he was both. In my experience, the two states are not mutually exclusive. The one thing that's clearly true is that his death was avoidable and tragic. Whichever camp you fall into, this is an upsetting tale. What also upsets me is that, due to the media picking up on this case, with various newspaper and magazine articles being written about it, a movie being made and the surefire win for anyone looking to be a teenage martyr a soundtrack album being recorded by hipster messiah Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, McCandless is being promoted as an inspirational figure for impressionable young people.

Hacia rutas salvajes jon krakauer biography

I can only hope that they will take this sad tale onboard as a cautionary tale, rather than one to emulate. Not marking my spoilers as I believe most people know the basic story. If you don't, proceed with caution! I liked this book okay - it is probably my least favorite Krakauer book, but I think that was because my feelings about it were tainted by the main character.

McCandless was soooooo frustrating. He refused help and destroyed his resources with the belief that that was what was required to survive on your own. Be prepared! Learn basic skills! Accept free help! All of those things would have still allowed him to be a vagabond and he might still be alive today. Also frustrating is the fact that I hear some people idolizing McCandless.

They want to be like him, they think he approached getting away from it all in a wise fashion, they martyr him maybe not realizing that it was his own ineptitude that caused his death?? Please read this as a cautionary tale, not as a guidebook for escaping life and responsibilities. If you do, I am sorry to say, you may meet the same fate. What a dumbass.

Matthew Ted. I then turned out my light, rolled over, and went to sleep. I was born in — five years after Chris McCandless died. The note I used to start the review was found on the bus his body was in. He weighed about four stone. Jon Krakauer wrote an article about the 24 year old boy who died in Alaska, but his obsession held him longer, long enough to write this beautiful, horrible book.

I am glad that he did. This book transcends being about McCandless. We are very unalike. My hacia rutas salvajes jon krakauer biography sees the world in black and white. Chances are my brother said it only to get a rise out of me, though I think he partly believed what he was saying. McCandless, as far as he was aware, as far as many people are aware, went into Alaska with almost no equipment, no food, and little idea on what he was going to do.

He survived days. What does that even mean? What I mean to say, I think, is that they were failed by literature. Literature is dangerous. Book burnings show how intimidating books can be. Krakauer takes us on a jaunt in his own life, when, a year younger than McCandless was in Alaska, he nearly lost his life climbing the Devils Thumb. He admitted to be on a high from reading too much Nietzsche and Kerouac — as if these were factors of his journey.

They were. They were for McCandless too. So, in way, literature inspired McCandless, Krakauer too, into searching for more meaning in life, for something bigger than themselves. Climb that goddamn mountain. Things that seem to steer me towards the life that the men in this book began striving for. Krakauer is impartial, though you can sense some to some degree a biased opinion, he is mostly removed from the book, leaving it entirely up to the reader to decide for themselves.

He includes some of the comments he had, the negative, attacking ones. There are also arguments on my side of the fence: It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behaviour is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure.

That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war: It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionary adaptive, a behaviour merely encoded in our genes. McCandless knew the risks, and Krakauer allows that he was arrogant too, he was unprepared, yes.

His failings do not, cannotoutlive what McCandless was trying to do. A 24 year old man does not die to be remembered for his failings. At least, his words will be remembered. It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. Thank you. Heroes in this Book This book moved me so much is because of the parallels I have found, possibly projected, in McCandless.

I am currently 23, just a year younger than he was. I am into the outdoors, I have been to many countries, I was in the scouts for most of my childhood, I adore camping and walking… I love the things that McCandless loves. And above all, I can imagine, as I have suggested, if I was less invested in my life here, I can picture myself doing something similar.

S note. In the end, he must have known he was dying, which does pain me a little to admit that he was in that bus, dying, and he knew it. He had escaped civilisation; he was living a truer life than his hero, Jack London, even more than Tolstoy. He lived the life he wanted to live, he lived the life he chose to live. Oh, to be more attractive.

Oh, to be more famous. Oh, to be richer. McCandless died with complete fulfilment in the life he wanted. He carved through the bullshit of life and reached the epicentre of his yearnings. His yearning was the death of him. But I dare say that he died having fulfilled himself, more than most of the people I know in my own life. Possibly, more than I will ever be able to fulfil my own life.

Krakauer goes on to say this, of the photograph: But if he pitied himself in those last difficult hours- because he was so young, because he was alone, because his body had betrayed him and his hacia rutas salvajes jon krakauer biography had let him down- it's not apparent from the photograph. He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.

Or as McCandless once wrote of himself in the third person, But his spirit is soaring. Jonathan Ashleigh. Author 1 book followers. I don't know why everyone went so wild over this book or this kid - is there one without the other? It seems like people only cared because it was a Jon Krakauer book that translated well to Hollywood.

The guy in the book didn't even have enough material about himself to make a whole book and every other chapter is about some other person who did a similar "disappearance into nature. Shariful Sadaf. Jason Koivu. Author 7 books 1, followers. On the outside looking in, this seems like another case of arrogant human vs unassuming nature. Nature usually wins that fight.

It did here and in a most tragic way. And yet, in Into the Wild Jon Krakauer does an excellent job of muddying up the waters, so that they flow with the natural fluidity of life itself. Was this kid so very unprepared? Was this a foolhardy and unnecessary death easily avoided with a few, slight precautions? Life is seldom black and white, cut and dry.

Krakauer reminds us of that, while telling a riveting story. The article written by J. Krakauer was totally enlarged to make this, an obsessive journalistic account of an obsession. I am sure that the core of it is included in this pg book somewhere the anecdote: young incompetent kid dies out in the wilderness ; it should be short and sweet, however it is exhaustively stretched out obviously to capitalize on the popular story to include stories of the own writer himself as a kid conceited!

Also, there's a long but interesting section which includes tales of other intrepid nonconformist isolationists. Why couldn't this kid just learn his lesson on moderation? Had this dude been into heroin instead, the results would have been strikingly similar minus, of course, the book. Library of a Viking. Very different from the movie but still very good.

Jo The Book Geek. Into the Wild was an interesting read, but I have been having trouble in putting a rating on it. I had heard vague aspects about Christopher McCandless in the past, and until now, I'd never actually read anything about his life, and his tragic end. This book was extremely well written. It is thorough in regards to investigating as to why and how McCandless died, and even the events leading up to his death.

I enjoyed the author's writing style, and if I'm honest, I was totally pulled in to this story. We meet a handful of witnesses who knew McCandless on a personal level, and they make a valued contribution to his story. I really enjoyed this read, but I disagree that McCandless is indeed being hailed a hero for the time he spent in the wild. Yes, it is definitely horrendous the way in which he died, but, in my personal opinion, he came across as a selfish and conceited character, who held no care for the people that loved him, therefore, breaking his families hearts.

His death could have been entirely avoided had he not been so hubristic and pompous. His father, Lewis Krakauer, a doctor and ambitious mountain climber, introduced Krakauer to mountaineering when he was eight. Krakauer's father placed immense pressure on his son to achieve high academic success. He then divided his time between Colorado, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest, working as a carpenter and salmon fisherman, traveling around, and mountain-climbing as much as possible.

Additionally, Krakauer published a book of photographs entitled Iceland: Land of the Sagas. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page. From the Trade Paperback edition. Previews available in: English. Showing 4 featured editions. View all 17 editions?

Add another edition? Copy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help? My Reading Lists:. Create new list Cancel. Read None Edit. When did you finish this book? Add an optional check-in date. Me muero de hambre. Le da buenos consejos que Franz sigue al pie de la letra. Los dos acabaron pereciendo: Everest en el desierto y Chris en Alaska.

Hielo y fuego para un mismo desdichado final. La muerte comienza a ser una grave amenaza. Estoy demasiado enfermo para salir andando y me he quedado literalmente atrapado en el monte.