The Wild Truth, a story Based off the novel Into The Wild about Christopher McCandless; the young college graduate who set out on a journey to live off the land, far away from civilization and ends up not surviving the journey. Carnie McCandless, sister to Chris, 20 years after Chris’ death decides to publish the story of not only Chris’ life and her opinion as to why he left for the wild, but her own story as well. From the bad family to the bad relationships, Carnie McCandless takes the reader on an engaging and deeper look into the McCandless family hoping to resolve the unanswered questions that readers of Into The Wild encountered.
As a reader of Into The Wild, when reading The Wild Truth, one might assume that the story would revolve greatly of Chris and analyze his actions in order to find answers, but that didn’t seem to be the case in this novel. It seemed that Carine basically told her life story and threw in Chris’ name every couple of paragraphs in order to keep the Into The Wild enthusiasts engaged. Yes, her stories involved Chris but never how Chris truly felt and how greatly it affected him. The stories that involved Chris were only when Chris was helping Carine cope with the hard times when their parents were fighting
When Carine explained these stories, they were in depth, had detailed descriptions and had what seemed to be accurate dialogue. Those being positive factors that drew the reader into the childhood story of Carnie and Chris.
To focus on the stories of their childhood as a whole, looking at it in reality, they seemed to be hate letters towards her parents rather than true explanations as to Chris’ departure from civilization based on childhood experiences that she suited the readers to expect in the novel.
Of course, Carine is not Chris so one cannot assume that she will know Chris’ every thought but, one most likely hoped the story would involve much more of Chris’ life rather than Carine’s countless amounts of terrible relationships that she can’t seem to escape from; whether they be family or boyfriend based relationships.
The hardcover copy of this book is 256 pages, not long at all espcially since I found myself unable to put the book down because it continued to leave me hanging. If I just stopped on a random page; and I’m glad I did not. I’m not one to read a book in one day, however, The Wild Truth kept me on my toes from start to finish. Overall, I highly recommend The Wild Truth, but highly suggested reading Into The Wild beforehand, it might give one more insight into The Wild Truth.
