Three Cups of Tea contains a hint of a beautiful story. There were parts that made me tear up. Some of the parts that made me tear up were touching; other parts that made me tear up were painfully written.
Greg Mortenson is really an American hero. His work in Pakistan and Afghanistan is truly amazing. David Oliver Relin is an American journalist. His work, at least on this book, is not so heroic. The following are some of my favorite, terrible sentences from the book:
“And by the time the rising sun iced the hanging glaciers of Masherbrum pale pink, like a gargantuan pastry dangling above them at breakfast time, Mortenson had agreed to shift the funds his board had approved for the doomed Khane school upside to this village whose headman had traveled so far downriver to educate himself.” (p. 206)
“And rippling out from Mortenson’s headquarters in Skardu, over the parched dunes, through the twisting gorges, and up the weather bound valley of Baltistan, the legend of a giant infidel called Dr. Greg was likewise growing.” (p. 210)
“In the fall of 2003, at the desk of his aviation company in Rawalpindi, as he tried to arrange a flight for Mortenson to Afghanistan, now that the CAI’s work in Pakistan was on firm enough footing for him to leave, Bhangoo’s boss, the bull-like Brigadier General Bashir Baz, ruminated on the importance of educating all of Pakistan’s children, and the progress America was making in the war on terror.” (p. 310)
As the above sentences might indicate, the writing in this book was painful, to say to the least. Some of the folks on Amazon suggested skimming through most of the book. I don’t know if that is necessary, but it might save you a few tears.
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin 
See here for Part I of my thoughts on Three Cups of Tea.
Buy Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
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I’m listening to the audiobook and it’s all the more painful.
I’m trying to make myself finish it.
Rebecca – Ugh. I can’t even imagine listening to those sentences. At least I could reread things to check and see if it was me or the book. It was the book. Still, I read this for my book club, and I was amazed at the number of people who were not bothered by the writing.
A lot of people, unfortunately, just do not understand the graces of good writing.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. That’s all there needs to be said. Susan Murphy
Jessica, the first time I heard a horrible sentence, I figured I miss heard it. The second time I groaned. The third time, I stopped listening for a week. But, it was in my “currently reading” list, so I had to finish listening to it. Props to the narrator who really did the best job he could of narrating a horribly written text.
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