Pages-224
ISBN: 10- 0330351699
Format: Paperback
Can you ever imagine a life without Internet, WiFi, android or shelter and live ascetic life? Would any one of us live a life which has no swanky things around us? Living in wilderness!
By thinking of jungles, living in forests, characters like Mowgli and Tarzan comes to my mind, they were the ones who spent their life in jungle from a small age. But leaving a comfortable life,after graduation, who wants to experience adventure where each corner is filled with new hitch and danger!
Here, I am with another book review of the book named ‘Into the Wild’ by Jon Krakauer. The book is divided into 18 chapters. It is based on story of a hitchhiker named Christopher McCandless(Alexander, Alex). Alex was son of Walt McCandless who worked in NASA and has been Project Manager for NASA’s Seasat Launch and Wilhelmina Johnson (Billie- second wife of Walt ).
Alex graduated from W.T. Woodson School, Fairfax, Virginia. As per his sister Carine, Alex didn’t liked to be trained or told about whatever he did, he was high achiever academically and got A’s easily, Alex was very possesive and cared about his sister. When Alex was 12, Billie and Walt bought Carine a puppy named Buckley, but Carine says, ‘Buckly was supposdly my dog, but he and Chris became inseperable’, Alex went with Buckley on long drive in his Datsun which was found abandoned near the shore of Lake Mead.
Alex when left to discover Alaska, a person named Jim Gallien had driven 4 miles out of fairbanks spotted this hitchhiker and Chris asked him to leave him as far as Denali National Park. Gallien left the hitchhiker to his destination with sandwiches which his wife had made and Chris diappeared after a giving a broad smile in the hue of snow covered track. And the date was Tuesday, April 28, 1992.
Alex met many people on his journey and boasted everyone about his facination for Alaska. Whenever he didn’t have money, he would work in the nearest city and then again hit the road. He carried many books with him, He loved to take risks and chase life in unusual way.
In the book there is ample information about Walt McCandless, Marcia (Walt’s first wife), Billie and Carine. And epitome of many other hikers like Gene Rosellini, John Waterman and Carl McCunn had similarities. McCandless was a seeker and had impractical facination with harsh side of naturs like Waterman and Rosellini. But unlike McCunn, he didn’t go into the bush assuming someone would automtically appear to save his bacon before he came to grief.
McCandless arrived at the abandoned bus on 8th july 1992 and started growing vegetables himself. A big reason for McCandless death was believed a toxic potato (H. makenzii). He soon fathomed that the end was near and one of his last act was holding his camera beneath the high Alaska sky and crawled into the blue sleeping bag swen by his mother and slept forever.
A number of people think him courageous but most of them thought him asinine boy.
～Kashish～
A New World 