For the most part, Jon Krakauer's
Into the Wild irritated me. Oddly enough, I didn't realize why until Krakauer quoted from a letter he received after his article on Alex McCandless was first published.
His (McCandless') ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him. And while I feel for his parents, I have no sympathy for him. Such willful ignorance … amounts to disrespect for the land, and paradoxically demonstrates the same sort of arrogance that resulted in the Exxon Valdez spill—just another case of unprepared, overconfident men bumbling around out there and screwing up because they lacked the requisite humility. (page 72)
And that solidified what I felt. I dislike ignorance and detest arrogance.
I will, however, admit to enough interest in McCandless to want to know the particulars of what happened to him. So I continued.
But then the author screwed it up—IMHO. He veered off, covering tales of others who had attempted similar treks. Some were successful; some weren't. I read on in horror that Krakaurer would have found a dozen more who started into the Alaskan wilderness but were stopped by something dire, like say a hangnail. Of course he didn't go that far, but he did devote two chapters to his own adventures in Alaska. A book written by a friend received a negative review because of her "intrusive voice." To me, two chapters by the author about the author define intrusive.
Let's just say it's not my type of book.
