07/21/2014
Twenty years ago, Jon Krakauer wrote in Into the Wild the stunning story of Chris McCandless, a young man who walked into the Alaska wilderness and starved to death. At the time, Krakauer spoke with Chris’s sister, Carine, who allowed Krakauer to read Chris’s letters, but asked the author not to print them. Two decades later, in this fiercely honest and gripping memoir, Carine shares many of these letters and candidly reveals the harsh and violent family in which the two grew up. The siblings’ father constantly berated and physically abused his young wife, and, as young children, Chris and Carine comforted each other the best they could. “Our parents hurt us constantly, but they were our parents. We wanted to believe the warm moments showed who they genuinely were, not just another part of the show they put on.” Chris eventually found freedom when he took off on his own in the year following high school graduation, and before he entered Emory—his father demanded to know Chris’s plans for the summer, but Chris refused, making the threats fell empty. When Chris headed off on his post-college journey, he left Carine to cope with her parents, and to stake out her own life. In the end, this is Carine’s story. She honestly shares her successes and failures in work and relationships as she comes to the realization that she has tried to find in adult life what was lacking in her childhood: worth, strength, and unconditional love. (Nov.)
One of the driving points of The Wild Truth is that [McCandless’s] famous, ultimately fatal journey of adventure and discovery was motivated in large part by a desire to escape his parents…Carine’s new book fleshes out the causes of Chris’s actions with much more detail and impact.” — Outsideonline.com
“A moving and revelatory saga.” — Boston Globe
“The Wild Truth is a moving narrative of domestic abuse, grief and survival, and for the perspective and revelations it contains, an essential additon to the Into the Wild story.” — Newsweek
“Fiercely honest and gripping. . . . She honestly shares her successes and failures in work and relationships as she comes to the realization that she has tried to find in adult life what was lacking in her childhood: worth, strength, and unconditional love.” — Publishers Weekly
“The Wild Truth is an important book on two fronts: It sets the record straight about a story that has touched thousands of readers, and it opens up a conversation about hideous domestic violence hidden behind a mask of prosperity and propriety.” — NPR.org
“Helping her readers become more familiar with the overwhelming burdens caused by dysfunctional parents is one of The Wild Truth’s major achievements. [McCandless] touches each of us…[we] have a better sense of what drove her brother and compelled her to write about her own harrowing history.” — Anchorage Press
“Powerful . . . gripping to read.” — Examiner.com
“A powerful book…For me, reading it was like finding a crucial missing word in the middle of a crossword puzzle: once those letters were filled in, the answers to the blank spaces around them also cascaded into place.” — Eva Holland, Vela Magazine
A powerful book…For me, reading it was like finding a crucial missing word in the middle of a crossword puzzle: once those letters were filled in, the answers to the blank spaces around them also cascaded into place.
The Wild Truth is a moving narrative of domestic abuse, grief and survival, and for the perspective and revelations it contains, an essential additon to the Into the Wild story.
Helping her readers become more familiar with the overwhelming burdens caused by dysfunctional parents is one of The Wild Truth’s major achievements. [McCandless] touches each of us…[we] have a better sense of what drove her brother and compelled her to write about her own harrowing history.
The Wild Truth is an important book on two fronts: It sets the record straight about a story that has touched thousands of readers, and it opens up a conversation about hideous domestic violence hidden behind a mask of prosperity and propriety.
A moving and revelatory saga.
One of the driving points of The Wild Truth is that [McCandless’s] famous, ultimately fatal journey of adventure and discovery was motivated in large part by a desire to escape his parents…Carine’s new book fleshes out the causes of Chris’s actions with much more detail and impact.
Powerful . . . gripping to read.
The Wild Truth is a moving narrative of domestic abuse, grief and survival, and for the perspective and revelations it contains, an essential additon to the Into the Wild story.
