Between the Pages

This is the true story of Chris McCandless, a young man with a good education, from a well-to-do family, who in 1990, left home without letting anyone know where he was. After travelling around the Southwest of American, in 1992 he entered the Alaskan wilderness intending to leave his old life behind and live off the land.  Chris changed his name, gave away all of his money and all but the most essential of his possessions, and set off into the wild.  Later that year his emaciated body was found in the wilderness by hunters; Chris’s dream had been the cause of his death.  This book pieces together how Chris spent his final two years, using his journals, and the memories and accounts of people he met during his travels.  It also discusses the effect that the whole experience had on Chris’s family, and looks at what might have caused him to abandon everything he knew for everything he didn’t.

The book also takes Chris’s life as a starting point for an examination of why certain people are drawn to such risky pursuits, and what would make someone want to pursue such a solitary and dangerous lifestyle.

I found the parts about Chris and his experiences very interesting.  I never felt that I really understood what motivated him; his family problems and frustration at the consumerist lifestyle might have caused him pain, but they were not especially unusual and would not necessarily make someone so drastically abandon their life.  Reading the words of people who Chris met was also very interesting – clearly he was a charismatic man, who seemed to have a great effect on people who he met, although he also liked his own company.

There was a section about other explorers who have lost their lives in similarly ambitious and dangerous pursuits, and this was one of the most fascinating parts of the book.

Sometimes the writing seemed slightly dry – for instance when explaining the difference between two very similar plants, one of which is poisonous and one of which isn’t – and I found myself losing interest.  However, overall this was a compelling if somewhat frustrating (due to the fact that the reader could never really empathise with Chris McCandless) book, and I would certainly recommend it.

(For more information about Christopher McCandless, please click here.)

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Click here for my review of the 2007 film adaptation.

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