Did you read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson? I did. Were you inspired by his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan? I was. Mortenson wrote that he was inspired by Mother Teresa and inferred that he should be thought of in such saintly terms. Jon Krakauer, no stranger to controversy (Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven, etc.), presents impressive, exhaustive, and compelling evidence that Mortenson is far less of a saint than he would have us believe. While Mortenson has done some good things in terms of building schools and especially providing education to girls and young women in places where that had never occurred, he was also an out-of-control megalomaniac who lied about enriching himself in the process. Mortenson sounds like an impressive and charismatic speaker, but unfortunately, someone who is too good to be true. How disappointing! Perhaps this book, a short and quick read, is best summed up in the last two sentences: “With one hand, Greg has created something potentially beautiful and caring (regardless of his motives). With the other he has murdered his creation by his duplicity.”
