Three Cups... of Tea or Deceit?

I just saw and read Three Cups of Deceipt which is a pretty damning expose by Jon Krakauer of Greg Mortenson and his Three cups of tea and Stones into Schools (which I haven't yet actually read). Krakauer asserts that Mortensen fabricated substantial portions of the book and has misused lots of money donated to the nonprofits founded by Mortensen.

The Krakauer report is available through Byliner
http://www.byliner.com/

There's been a bunch in the blogosphere about this over the last couple days... your thoughts?


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/when-three-cups-of-tea-and-...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-elliott/three-cups-of-humble-pie_b_852204...

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2011/04/what_this_statemen...

I loved Three Cups of Tea. If all of this is true, it will be very sad.

I tried to read it, couldn't get past the first chapter.

>3 DeusExLibrus:

It's true: the writing is not very good. It is the story that made the book for me. k4k

I just finished reading Three Cups of Deceit. The problems are too well documented to be substantially false. And Krakauer goes out of his way to point out the good that has been done, so he is not totally biased against Mortenson. This makes me very sad.

k4k

When I read Three Cups of Tea for book club, I thought it was an important book that should be widely read. I learned a lot about the parts of the world at which we are at war and how the culture of these indigenous people thwarts easy solutions. Now that I know most of the story was fabricated (and I must ask -- Why?), I don't regret what I've learned but it makes me feel sad, foolish, and betrayed. What was Mortenson's intent? Was he merely naive, unable to handle money and lead a non-profit successfully? I wish editors would vet the veracity of such books before publication.