Three Cups Of Deceit by Jon Krakauer

From The Week of May 08, 2011

Mr. Krakauer possesses a rare will. Not only did he survive to write about a botched 1996 climb up Mount Everest, he's since devoted years of his authorial career to exposing religious and governmental coercion and deception. In Three Cups of Deceit, which, at 75 pages, is more a pamphlet than a novel, he trains his formidable powers upon Greg Mortenson, the famous humanitarian who transformed a failed 1993 climb of K2 into a career building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr. Krakauer wastes no time systematically and sensationally debunking Mr. Mortenson's heralded achievements by pointing out the numerous and startling inconsistencies in Mortenson's story. Drawing on interviews with figures within Mr. Mortenson's own charity, as well as individuals on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr. Krakauer describes how Mr. Mortenson has exploited his own charity to further his fame and advertise his books while keeping every dime of his earnings from both his published works and his speaking engagements. Worse yet, Mr. Krakauer alleges that only a fraction of the schools Mr. Mortenson claims to have built have actually been completed, with many of even the completed schools devoid of teachers.

Mr. Krakauer is not a disinterested party. He admits to donating $75,000 to Mr. Mortenson's charity before growing disenchanted with Mortenson's increasingly erratic behavior. Though Three Cups of Deceit has the rage of a man scorned, made to feel the fool, the relentlessness of Mr. Krakauer's explosive research convinced me that, at best, Mr. Mortenson has a great deal to answer for. After all, he would not be the first human to succumb to the allure of his own mythology and the power and wealth that accompanies it.

Sensationalistic and polemic, but it has the feel of a solid case. If Mr. Krakauer is right in his claim that Mr. Mortenson has even defrauded schoolchildren via his Pennies for Peace program, then it is my sincerest hope that, at some point in his life, he comes to recognize that, rather than do good, he has committed one of the gravest crimes imaginable, to selfishly profit from the credulity of innocents. (3/5 Stars)