 |
|
Title: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
ISBN: 0385522266
Author:
Jon Krakauer
Publicate Date: 2009-09-15
Publish: 2009-09-15
List Price: $27.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.90
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $18.45
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: An Important Story. Compelling Hero.
The author tells three stories. One is the story of Pat Tillman and another the systematic failures that led to his death and produced a cover up. The third story, the modern history of Afghanistan, is used to parallel the life of Pat Tillman. The first two stories are the heart of the book. The third story is lengthy and seems to be filler. There are good maps and no photos. Given Tillman's interest in philosophy and literature, the title is appropriate as well as the quotes that introduce the chapters. You come to understand that Tillman is no ordinary jock, but an exceptional person with considerable depth.
Dysfunctions in the prosecution of the GWOT have been described many works. Here, as in Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq, personnel at a remote location literally call the shots. Here, the brass at the FOB ordered a Humvee carcass to be towed over and down a mountain and a platoon to be divided. There are rules of engagement which, like the towing and platoon split, give little weight to the front line individual's judgment. Why is it that the communications equipment, which should be state of the art (goodness, what did it cost?) doesn't work in battle? Each of these is an element that factored into the "friendly fire" death of Pat Tillman.
While the dysfunctions are described, the book's most powerful indictment is on how the tragedies of war were distorted and fed to an uncritical press in order to build support for the war. Jim Wilkinson's "perception management" had previously been successful in diverting attention from an incident resulting the 29 US deaths, 11 missing and 6 other captives by creating Jessica Lynch as a hero. The author describes how this was done and how the Tillman tragedy was similarly managed at the highest levels. The Tillman story is more insidious because evidence was destroyed, witnesses ordered to silence (despite the presence of brother Kevin Tillman in their platoon) and reports delayed and otherwise manipulated.
While the book is about other systemic problems, Chapter 19, on boot camp, is worthy of note. The description of the recruits is discouraging. This is not a cross section of Americans and clearly not like the universal commitment to WWII. The general recognition that Tillman is an exception, particularly for making a financial sacrifice, says something about the public's perception of this war. While it's the stuff of lore and jokes, what really is the purpose of "Clean your boots, scuff them up, clean them again because I said so"? Have the goals objectives and methods of boot camp been seriously evaluated in recent years? Tillman, who has had years of top notch athletic training and team work conditioning notes a lot of boot camp is "archaic, bizarre and counterproductive."
In some areas the prose seems forced. Quotes from Abdul Ghani and Reka Cseresnyes strike me as too idiomatic for second language speakers. There is a lot of extraneous content. The final chapter's discussion of Nietzsche and the masculinity of western men struck me as just plain weird. While these flaws exist, there do not seem to be any problems with the research. This is an important work and should be widely read.
|
2: Poorly told and Bias
I was really looking forward to reading this book. When I finally got a copy and started on it not only did I find it slow moving and boring at best; the author puts a lot of energy into working his political opinions into the story. I really did not need a chapter on the 2000 election and how Gore really won; fact is I'm over that argument, it was ten years ago. You would think that the Bush administration personally killed Pat Tillman by reading this book. I have a lot of respect for Pat Tillman and all of our men and women that have died for our great county and I think it in poor taste to try and make a political statement (left or right)with someone else's death. I would not waste your time with this book.
|
3: Be like Tillman and put aside your preconceptions if you read this book
As someone who could be described as a centrist, I was quite depressed, though not surprised, to see reviews here reflecting political bias from both sides. The true lesson of Pat Tillman is no side can own him - not the left, not the right. Pat Tillman was a complicated man that cannot be pigeon holed. For those who can get past their own politics, this is a fascinating story and I think everyone should know something about it. Who among us can say we approach his level of following his convictions? Some might say he is a tragic figure, because his own stubborn resolve to do the right thing led to his death, but what I took from this book was if there were more Pat Tillmans there would be less tragedies like that of Pat Tillman.
We get enough politics and spin. Read this story and think about the man. When so many of us jump to knee jerk reactions over every issue, he questioned everything and everybody. His independence, intelligence, commitment and willingness to sacrifice and serve represents the kind of American we can all learn from.
|
4: Into Thin Writing
Jon Krakauer has made a good living illuminating the lives of compelling madmen who pursue their dreams to fatal extremes. Along the way we've learned some good lessons: 1) Don't climb Mt. Everest in a storm (Into Thin Air), 2) Carry more than a sack of rice if you tackle the Alaskan wilderness (Into the Wild), and 3) the marriage of multiple women is something to be approached in serial, not in parallel (Under the Banner of Heaven). All well and good, and usually told in arresting prose by Krakauer. But in seeking to add one more cautionary lesson to the list --don't be a soldier unless you're willing to get shot-- Krakauer has finally missed his mark in Where Men Win Glory.
For starters, the narrative flow is jarring and disjointed. Alternating between the convoluted twists of Afghan political history and Pat Tillman's suburban childhood in California creates a vertiginous read that never really settles into a coherent pattern. The book is interspersed with long entries from Tillman's journals, and while he seems like a nice enough guy it's a bit like stumbling upon the diary of a hugely self-absorbed, angst-ridden high school kid. You almost expect to see scrawled pictures of naked women in the margins. It doesn't make you want to like Tillman more.
The language of the book itself simply isn't as evocative as the Krakauer's past writings. Given the terrain where Tillman fought and died, and given the author's demonstrated ability to capture with words the features and power of nature, I was surprised that the prose was fairly flat and uninspiring.
And finally --and this is the part I hated about the book-- Krakauer's unrelenting anti-Bush bias was distracting and and so strident that it marginalized the author's credibility. Krakauer tries to convince us of the illegitimacy of the Bush presidency (let's all spend several pages reading a conspiracy theorist's retelling of the 2000 election), the illegitimacy of the Iraq war (because apparently Krakauer must have known at the time there were no weapons of mass destruction but neglected to inform the world), and the byzantine cover-up of Pat Tillman's death by his fellow soldiers (that was admitted to within weeks after the death).
We get it, Jon. You don't like George Bush. Hey, I voted for Obama. But, then how do you reconcile your unadulterated admiration for Pat Tillman, who voluntarily chose to take up arms in Bush's war? Square that circle, Jon, and you might have an interesting read after all. Keep spouting your narrow-minded vitriol, and you will keep getting two stars in my reviews.
|
5: Heavy on details but at its heart a gripping book...
I've loved every book Jon Krakauer has written, so I was waiting for this one with a great deal of anticipation. I'm glad he didn't disappoint me!
Truthfully, I didn't really know that much about Pat Tillman except for the bare essentials: he was a good football player who, in the wake of 9/11, decided to join the military, and was killed by friendly fire a few years later. I certainly made assumptions about him as a person based on those simple facts, which this book proved were completely incorrect. But while this book tells Pat's story, it doesn't present him as a totally infallible or perfect person, which I appreciate. Certainly, reading about the events that led to Tillman's death and the cover-up that followed made me really angry and a bit surprised that none of this really came to public light. But I also know that there probably is some bias on Krakauer's part that factored into the telling of some of the story. This is a tremendously gripping book, although the background into the history of the Afghan/Iraqi conflicts was a little too dry for me. But Krakauer has brought another tragic story to life.
|
|
|
|
|
