I promised myself to write a critique of each book I read from the BBC’s 100 list this year. But then I decided why not write about every book I read too? I’m an avid reader and book club participant, so it makes sense to jot down the thoughts and views I finish with after reading a novel. If anything it might help me to remember each story I read.
So for the first critique of 2011 it is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
By the end of this book it’s hard not to have a familial affection for Greg Mortenson, the real-life hero of this book, who currently spends more than half of his year in war-torn Afghanistan building schools, mending villages and helping children grow with purpose.
Map of Northern Areas, including Korphe and K2
The title, Three Cups of Tea, refers to the way Pakistanis do business with each other as Mortenson learned. The first cup of tea you are strangers, the second cup of tea you become friends and by the third cup you are family and work as such. Throughout the years Mortenson experiences many other confusing formalities and learns new languages in order to build schools for the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His dream eventually becomes reality once the Central Asia Institute (CAI) is founded in 1996 and now they support over 180 schools, as well as health and women’s centers – and Mortenson is still building more.
It’s easy to see, even as Relin jumps around the subject, that Mortenson has faults. His scope is tunneled. He wants so much to give everything he can to Pakistan/Afghanistan that he loses touch with his fellow CAI board members and some end up distancing themselves from the cause. Relin also mentions more than once that Mortenson procrastinates, he arrives late to meetings and forgets to call. This was probably one of the reasons why he lost some relationships along the way.
What is hardest on his family, however, are the long periods he spends on the other side of the world. While reading the book I began to imagine Mortenson as a soldier deployed to the front line. Each time he leaves, Tara, his wife, has to say goodbye to him as if it is their last. Mortenson has feared for his life on more than one occasion. In the book he was kidnapped, caught between cross fire and walked through mine fields. He also worked throughout the war in Afghanistan, a time when it was considered dangerous for Americans to travel around the Northern Areas of Pakistan, the Hindu Kush and Tajikistan where Taliban would be seen. For a woman, like Tara, to let her husband work in such challenging areas of environmental and political strife, and raise their children by herself, she deserves a gold medal of her own.
Hushe School built by the Central Asia Institute (CAI)
Yes it does seem as though Mortenson focuses mainly at the task at hand in Pakistan/Afghanistan and forgets about his responsibilities in North America, but that is where his heart lies. Mortenson can be described as a late bloomer, he discovered his passion, his career and his family later in life at the age of 40. For years he was a wanderer, not quite sure where he was meant to end up. Ironically, his failure to reach the peak of K2 led him to a whole new chapter in life.
What becomes a very important part in this book is how Mortenson begins discussion with U.S. Congress and even Donald Rumsfeld – which was described as ‘inhospitable’ – sets in motion his logical approach to fighting the “war on terrorism.” He begins to fully understand the distance between the Pentagon and Afghanistan. Rumsfeld’s ‘do or die’ approach isn’t doing any good and Mortenson must spread his knowledge of the east to Americans so they understand the facts of Taliban, Wahhabi madrasses and Osama Bin Laden.
Relin captured Mortenson, faults and all, as someone we can identify with because most of us still don’t really know what we want to be either. The fact that he managed to overcome so many obstacles in such a humane way shows readers they can do just as much with very little. A very inspiring story and a very good read.
