Krakauer tells this fascinating, sad, and thought-provoking story well. It’s clear that he investigated McCandless’s adventures quite thoroughly, and he puts the young man’s atypical actions into perspective as well as he can. I enjoyed it.
I’m still not sure what to think of McCandless. He was clearly foolish to head out into the Alaskan wild without so much as a map, and he paid for that foolishness with his life. But I sympathize with many of his idealistic feelings about money, nature, and modern society. There’s lots to think about.