An adventure tale that, to me, is just the right size at about 200 pages. Chris McCandless was an idealistic college grad who resented his parents, gave away his life savings of $24,000, and hitchhiked around North America and finally up to the Alaskan wilderness to find himself and something higher. He read the right people (Tolstoy, Thoreau, et al.), lived like John Muir, and just operated outside of a lot of our society's confines. I would have liked to meet him. He left indelible impressions on all whose roads intersected with his.

This book moves fast, as did the man himself. Krakauer's style reminds me of Erik Larsson's in 'Devil in the White City.' Larsson writes better, and Krakauer's very much the magazine journalist he was before these books of his erupted. He's detailed and witty, good at transitions. He does well to acquire the young man's journal from the voyage and has obviously interviewed at length the parents, sister, friends, and highway acquaintances of the lad. Those excerpts and quotes go far. If the people truly said those things, and like that, it's an eloquent bunch.

The book flows like one of those crashing streams McCandless tried to cross to save himself in the North. It's hard to put down and can be read in a day, even by a snailish reader like me. Krakauer's comparisons to his own restless, embittered coming-of-age story fit well and make for more convincing writing. You can see why he took to McCandless's story.

Chris (aka Alexander Supertramp) was smart, gifted, wild, loving, and ultimately maddening. His family really seems to have gotten a raw deal in the whole thing, and yet they want his story to be told. You know what's coming, but it doesn't make it any easier to take.