I would give this book a rating of 5 stars.
SUMMARY We learn about a boy named Christopher Johnson McCandless who traveled to the wilderness. He took a new name, Alex Supertramp, and survived for more than a hundred days. Then he died out of hunger and was discovered nineteen days later. Given the circumstances, Jon Krakauer was allowed to write a newspaper article about the facts surrounding Chris. Struck "by the unsettling parallels", Krakauer "refused to let [Chris McCandless's story] go", and learned more about Chris and his family. Chris's father and mother tried to persuade Chris into telling them about his plans after a dangerous journey. However, Chris refused to listen and was "even less inclined to share his plans". Then, he learned about his father's second family and was very angry. He graduated, but then instantly went on his trip to Alaska. He was sent to Alaska by many people and friends, including Gallien and Ronald Franz. When he arrived, he was doing great until he ate some poisonous plant and died. The reason was debated for a long time but it was finally proven that it was because of a toxic amino acid, "L-canavanine", inside the potato seed, "H. alpinum". Krakauer has experienced something similar to McCandless. He had an alcoholic father and had attempted to climb the Devil's Thumb. " I thought climbing the Devil's Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. " The two are not the same; Krakauer did not, for instance, possess the wealth at that time comparable to McCandless's. However, Krakauer and McCandless are very similar. " [...] I survived my Alaska adventure and McCandless did not survive his[. It] was largely a matter of chance[.] " THEME There are a lot of themes in this story: "the grip wilderness has on the American imagination, the allure high-risk activities hold for young men of a certain mind, the complicated, highly charged bond that exists between fathers and sons", et cetera. WHAT I THINK IS NOT SO GOOD First, I'm 13, so this book seems mildly inappropriate in quotes "Holy shit!" "What the hell is that?" et cetera. Other than that I think the timelines are a bit jumbled and perhaps a literal timeline beside the story would be better. (I was going to say that the Afterword was way too scientific but some science nerds might like that, and it is being truthful.
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