Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Here’s the bestseller which has been stirring quite a lot of controversy, resulting in many people losing faith in the author cum hero (albeit a handful of loyal fans are still standing by). I have no semblance of an idea to what extent is it entirely true though. Controversies aside, I am simply a reader reviewing this in the most unprejudiced sense as I hope possible, so do regard this with an open heart and mind!
Three Cups of Tea, is a biography, written in the third person, of a particularly extraordinary man named Greg Mortenson. An avid mountaineer, he endeavored to scale new heights and reach the summit of K2 to honor his late sister, but got lost along the way. This failure turned out to a blessing in disguise. After losing direction, he found himself in a rural area in Pakistan dwelled by poverty-stricken villagers. While he found himself acquainted with the pleasant people there, he began to feel sad for their impoverished living conditions, more notably the complete lack of support for their education. Hence, he promised the villagers he would commit to building schools for the children, especially for the girls who were left behind and not allowed to grow academically.
Gradually, more and more schools were built across the country. The journey to success isn’t always a smooth one.. he was faced with plenty of obstacles - lack of materials, short of funding, the taliban threat, adherence to the strict and unreasonable fatwas - but he soldiered on and overcame the challenges eventually. He believed that the only way to fight the increasing problem of ignorance there is by educating its people.
Let me begin with what I don’t quite like about the book. To be perfectly honest, I had an incredibly hard time completing Three Cups of Tea. I’m not quite sure why but it’s just odd that I couldn’t get my mind to focus on everything that was written. Perhaps this is one of the aspects that I didn’t get about the book; the writing gave me a bit of a headache sometimes. Sentences tend to get too long and I find some of the comparisons or the personifications used a little unfitting. Also, it felt a little odd reading it from the 3rd person perspective, David Oliver Relin, in this case. Sometimes it slipped my mind that it isn’t Mortenson who is narrating his adventures. In addition to that, the fact that I kept seeing praises of how amazing Mortenson is, scattered basically throughout the book, can be slightly off-putting. I do get that he’s brilliant but hammering that fact which we all already know since the beginning, is something quite disconcerting.
However, I do like that this book taught me quite a lot of new things about the different cultures, customs, history and languages of the Pakistan villagers.. how things could be settled in peace and discussed over a simple cup of tea. There are a set of photos in black and white included in the middle of the book. This is my favourite part. Flipping the photos, seeing the beautiful faces of the children and kind villagers somewhat lifted my spirits. Besides that, the strong motivational factor in this hero to zero story is probably what that salvaged the rather unimpressive writing. Mortenson’s valour and determination sets an example for each and every one of us to continuously do good for humanity, regardless of race or religion.
Having said all that, I still can’t say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, because I did feel like nodding off to sleep at certain parts of it. Granted, this book instills faith in us that the goodness and bravery in people like Mortenson are still very much alive and deserves to be rewarded, but perhaps Three Cups of Tea didn’t quite fulfill my expectations..
Let’s just say, the hero’s cause is highly respectable, salutes to that, but I honestly am still befuddled how this managed to skyrocket to one of the list of top bestsellers and reading lists in many institutions. I wouldn’t think twice to read Shakespeare instead of this the next time if I was given a choice. It is entirely up to you if you want to read this since I’m not exactly crazy for it. Read it once, admire this man for his astronomical courage and efforts… end of story.
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