I've got mixed feelings about this one. I saw the movie roughly a year ago, and I had mixed feelings about that too. One good thing about the book, as opposed to the movie is that it gave a clearer time frame and order of events. From the movie I was very unclear about the sequence of locations where McCandless ventured before finally striking off to Alaska, now I understand that some of them were repeated.

Ultimately the author, [author: Jon Krakauer], seems to struggle with the question as to whether Chris McCandless was a fool or a noble adventurer who just got unlucky at the end. It seems to me that Krakauer has decided on the latter because McCandless reminds him of himself. To wit, two entire chapters where the author recounts one of his own adventures climbing "the Thumb" and then trying to relate that experience to what McCandless might have experienced, or the needs that drove Chris into the Alaskan wilderness.

I recognize that the events that transpired are tragic and portions of the story are very compelling and moving, but I think Krakauer spends too much of the book trying to find himself in Chris McCandless instead of trying to find more of Chris in Chris.