The Wild Truth

I read "Into the Wild" long before it became a Hollywood film and found it to be one of the most disturbing, and sad accounts I had ever read. It was the sort of book that stays with you for days and seems to take up permanent residence somewhere inside your head. It was unforgettable. Jon Krakauer's sensitive rendering of the material indicated a deep and respectful understanding of the events that unfolded. And one did not have to read between the lines to discern the existence of familial discord; it was apparent, even if the author did not include full transcripts of letters penned by Chris McCandless to his sister, Carine.

Fast forward, and now appears a book that contends to present "the truth" about what drove this young man into the wild where he ultimately perished from starvation. I was intrigued by this. Perhaps Chris McCandless was gay, and had been rejected by his parents. Maybe he was sexually abused. Surely, a book with such a sensational headline ("The Wild Truth") would present the bombshell that would make the world say, "Oh....now it all makes sense."

If you are interested in Carine McCandless this is the book for you. You will read of her likes and dislikes, what she did, where she went, who she married... But if you're reading this to glean deep insights into her brother, you won't. If you've read "Into the Wild" you already know that their father had another wife and six kids. You already know about the wealth; the high academic standards to which the kids were measured; the occasional violence and overall dysfunction. Therefore, this book to me is a disappointment because not only is it not particularly well-written, it fails to present anything that is entirely new or not previously documented.

What I found odd, and not fully explained, is that despite having such a close relationship with her brother (according to the author) he nevertheless included her, along with his parents, as people he no longer wished to communicate with. No one in the family had heard from him, or seen him, in over two years. Strangely, Chris felt compelled to dash off post-cards to people he'd just met. Why did he not pick up a phone at least, and dial his sister?

To me, this speaks of his disdain not just for his parents but for his sister as well. He may have loved her, but it seems that he included her in the ven diagram of bourgeois acquisitiveness to which he condemned his parents. In his final package sent to his sister, he teased her by referring to her as "Leona Helmsley" and other notoriously rich and vacant women. Was he kidding, or was there an underlying commentary being made? The author admits that she squandered her inheritance on her "posh" apartment replete with the visible trappings of affluence. Contrast to this to her brother who gave away his inheritance to Oxfam.
Is it not even remotely possible that he no longer felt intellectually connected to his sister during this particular moment in time?

Because why did he never contact her? The only possible answer is this is: Because he didn't want to. He chose not to.
One could surmise that while he indeed loved his sister, perhaps he felt they no longer had anything in common. That is how he may have felt as a very young man yearning to realize his own identity. It is a snap-shot in time but the author attempts to draw long-range and meaningful conclusions that simply don't make sense. If our lives end in our early 20s, and we fail to come full-circle to realize the fullness of our experiences, we become frozen in a moment: we are forever 22, or 24, or whatever age we were. Anyone who has reached middle-age can look back and admit that they've changed a great deal...we lighten up, we are no longer perpetually outraged. Chris never reached middle-age. He didn't even make it to age 25. And because of this, the author looks for someone to blame: the parents.

Regardless, the disturbing lack of contact between Chris and Carine deserved analysis and there is none. This obvious decision on his part - to exclude his family from any communication - is not remotely explained in this book which, to me, was a glaring omission. Again, he sent postcards to people he'd just met. But didn't send a single one to his sister.

Carine McClandless has three failed marriages under her belt at the age of 42 and she seems to regard this is a badge of courage; a word she likes to use repeatedly. She's "courageous" for leaving men who didn't "respect" her. Conversely, her mother is not courageous because she stayed. Carine McCandless comes through the page (to me) as someone who could use some therapy. Granted, their parents were hardly ideal. But neither are mine. The father was bad-tempered. So was mine. And I did not have parents who took me on cruises, paid for my education and cars, helped set me up in a business, or took me out for nice dinners. Do these things indicate that the parents were ideal? No. They were not functional in many aspects - but not in all.
If these two people were so awful that their son felt compelled to take off into the wild without so much as a message left on a post-it note, the author fails completely to present a convincing case.

We forget that Chris McCandless left for his adventure at the age of 22. He was just a kid. If he had survived; had he not starved to death; chances are he'd be sitting behind a desk somewhere, paying a mortgage, raising a family of his own, and chuckling over his experiences. At 22, the world seems phony. Your parents are phony, nothing seems "genuine" or "authentic" and you have the time, freedom, health, and vigor of youth, to head out into the wood or the mountains or Sri Lanka, to sew your wild oats. It's been happening since human beings first began to document their existences. But because Chris McCandless met with staggering misfortune - on a scale that is mind boggling and heart-wrenching - we look for clues. There has to be a mystery; there must be some hidden underlying reason. According to Carine McCandless, it was because his parents were so awful. Their hypocrisy and phoniness drove their son to die alone in a bus in Alaska.

I just don't see it. Seven out of eight kids in that family went on to lead relatively normal lives. There isn't a train-wreck left in Walt and Billie's wake of drug abuse, violence, and shattered lives. The offspring of this unfortunate union seem like decent human beings. Parents can never take all the blame or all the credit for how their children turn out.

And now I shall await the deluge of outraged Amazon reviewers who feel incensed if a reader does not arrive at the same conclusions as they. I did not like this book. I did not particularly like the author. If you did, that's lovely, but I didn't - and this is my review. Chris McCandless appeared to be a deeply private person and one could imagine how appalled he would be by this sort of exposure. I wonder if he would find it as cringe-worthy as I do.

I was very disappointed with this book. I thought Chris’s story in Into the Wild was fascinating. Contrary to how this book is marketed, it is much more about Carine McCandless. Not just the tumultuous shared childhood of her and Chris, but also, and perhaps primarily, all of Carine's adult relationships, trips taken, and other life events that occurred long after Chris’s death. I believe she wanted to write a book about herself and it was convenient to piggy back off of her brother’s “fame.” After the recitation of her and Chris’s childhood (which doesn’t take up even ½ of the book’s content), I had a hard time finding any reason to continue reading. I did finish, but it wasn’t because I liked it- I was just too invested, albeit bored, by that time. I would not recommend this to anyone. If anything, check it out from the library and read the first couple chapters.

I read this book beause I wanted to learn more about Christopher McCandless' family and, especially, his relationship with his sister. Into the Wild is one of my favorite books and I have always admired Christopher McCandless' story, mostly because it seemed he had the courage to go it alone and sought the truth about himself, his family, the world, and his place in it. Most people don't have the commitment or stomach for that. I really enjoyed this book because of some of the background it gives about Christopher McCandless (his childhood, excerpts of letters). And while I do wish there was more about him, because the story really does revolve around the author's life, I enjoyed learning about Carine McCandless, her life, her truths, and experiences. Is this a book that is a tell-all about Christopher McCandless? No, it isn't (although it does provide insight into his background, his mindset, and a little more of his motivation). But it's a great book and I would recommend it.

The author, Carine McCandless, attempts to fill in the blanks that she asked be left out of Into the Wild. Complete with family photos that span decades, this book allows the reader to experience Chris' life from his childhood and put his journey into perspective. As the family member closest to him, Carine is the perfect person to tell their story. Although it is definitely not a happy read, I am glad that I have had the opportunity to learn more about the person that inspired Into the Wild.

I liked this book quite a bit. It is interesting to see the full story of this family whose son was the subject of both a movie and a book. She was believable in her writing and you felt you really got to see what led Chris to become so wild and reckless. I hope she continues to write.

My mom really enjoyed this book. She really enjoyed reading in her leisure time.