Love the film, not so much the book

I had high hopes after having seen the film, the book is a slight disappointment.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting read

we are all different and some people are at the extreme. searching for what makes us happy, sometimes kills us.

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An interesting read

I seen the film before I read the book and I did like the film... the book is well written and the author gives the reader the freedom to make his or hers own decision about why a young man would go off into the Alaskan wilderness never to return. He gives the facts as they were and doesn't judge. I like that. Worth a read/listen

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Nothing short of brilliant

Flawless book. Excellent performance and only the editing repeated short pieces several times, I'd say perfect.

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Interesting coverage

I probably won’t be the first to listen to this after seeing the film, and took a while waiting for the Chris Mccandless story as I expected it would purely be about him.

However you are met with a more personal account from Krakauer on his experiences and how they may have similarities. On conclusion to the book I feel it’s a nice touch, definitely would recommend.

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Loved it

I truly loved this book but it was so sad. I enjoyed the narrative style and the way the story unfolded.

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best book ever

I've watched the film, and found it inspiring. after listening to this book, it has let me understand him more and gave information about Chris that the film doesnt share

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6 people found this helpful

Incredible, a really incredible book.

Emotional, thorough, stimulating, detailed. Krakau's writing is wonderful, he paints a vivid picture of the desire that fuels our late teens/early 20's and the resultant behaviour. Highly recommended.

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An amazing story!

Such a vivid story, it makes me want to go out and leave my world behind to have an adventure of my own.

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The need to escape can be so insurmountable that nothing else matters.

There has always been something about Chris McCandless that has intrigued me. I have once again found myself falling back into a fixation on him and his story. There is something about this human being that I have never met which really resonates with me.

With this fixation comes recurring cycles of reading this book (or this time listening to the audiobook), watching the movie, or falling down a YouTube pit of stories about his adventures. However, this time, while I am still undoubtedly enamoured by Chris and his ability to simply drop everything and go, I think I feel differently about him.

At the core of it, Chris was unequivocally ignorant to his own privilege, to the people that he cut off, to the land that he sought to make his own, and to how insignificant we humans are in the face of nature.

Krakauer’s objectivity allows us on the outside to make up our own minds about Chris, and listening to this book spurred new understandings for myself. The parts in the epilogue where Chris’ mum says “I haven’t prayed since we lost him”, and when the elderly man Ronald Franz denounced god at the loss of McCandless really struck me hard.

I do wish that he made it out in the end.

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