Not quite as good as Into Thin Air or Into the Wild, but another good one from Jon Krakauer. It alternates between the story of All Around Bad Dude Pat Tillman, and a thumbnail history of the events leading up to 9/11, which convinces Tillman to join the Army. Unfortunately his death by friendly fire in Afghanistan is [political] covered up and exploited for political gain by neocon shitbags like Rumsfeld.[/political]
The book left me admiring Tillman as a person and angry as hell at the circumstances leading up to and following his death.
Quote from: R-V on May 13, 2010, 12:53:16 PM
Not quite as good as Into Thin Air or Into the Wild, but another good one from Jon Krakauer. It alternates between the story of All Around Bad Dude Pat Tillman, and a thumbnail history of the events leading up to 9/11, which convinces Tillman to join the Army. Unfortunately his death by friendly fire in Afghanistan is [political] covered up and exploited for political gain by neocon shitbags like Rumsfeld.[/political]
The book left me admiring Tillman as a person and angry as hell at the circumstances leading up to and following his death.
This book also left me mad at Krakauer for using Tillman as a plot device to tell us how much he hates George Bush.
Not a bad read, but not on par with any of his other work.
As for any Krakauer book, you can clearly see the hard work and time he put into it, but this one just had too many of his personal biases throughout...was very hard to remove Pat Tillman the man from the overarching critique on the administration (even if much of it is justified).
Quote from: PenPho on May 13, 2010, 02:48:23 PM
Quote from: R-V on May 13, 2010, 12:53:16 PM
Not quite as good as Into Thin Air or Into the Wild, but another good one from Jon Krakauer. It alternates between the story of All Around Bad Dude Pat Tillman, and a thumbnail history of the events leading up to 9/11, which convinces Tillman to join the Army. Unfortunately his death by friendly fire in Afghanistan is [political] covered up and exploited for political gain by neocon shitbags like Rumsfeld.[/political]
The book left me admiring Tillman as a person and angry as hell at the circumstances leading up to and following his death.
This book also left me mad at Krakauer for using Tillman as a plot device to tell us how much he hates George Bush.
Not a bad read, but not on par with any of his other work.
As for any Krakauer book, you can clearly see the hard work and time he put into it, but this one just had too many of his personal biases throughout...was very hard to remove Pat Tillman the man from the overarching critique on the administration (even if much of it is justified).
Can't say I agree with all of this. I don't think Tillman was used as a "plot device." Krakauer told the story of Pat Tillman's life and what a unique guy he was. He also told the big-picture story of the events that he judged to be relevant to Tillman. And yes, this second part of the story was probably too wide and scope and too political. But I don't think it took anything
away from the Tillman part of the story. I don't feel like he left anything out of the Tillman story.
Quote from: R-V on May 13, 2010, 03:56:31 PM
Quote from: PenPho on May 13, 2010, 02:48:23 PM
Quote from: R-V on May 13, 2010, 12:53:16 PM
Not quite as good as Into Thin Air or Into the Wild, but another good one from Jon Krakauer. It alternates between the story of All Around Bad Dude Pat Tillman, and a thumbnail history of the events leading up to 9/11, which convinces Tillman to join the Army. Unfortunately his death by friendly fire in Afghanistan is [political] covered up and exploited for political gain by neocon shitbags like Rumsfeld.[/political]
The book left me admiring Tillman as a person and angry as hell at the circumstances leading up to and following his death.
This book also left me mad at Krakauer for using Tillman as a plot device to tell us how much he hates George Bush.
Not a bad read, but not on par with any of his other work.
As for any Krakauer book, you can clearly see the hard work and time he put into it, but this one just had too many of his personal biases throughout...was very hard to remove Pat Tillman the man from the overarching critique on the administration (even if much of it is justified).
Can't say I agree with all of this. I don't think Tillman was used as a "plot device." Krakauer told the story of Pat Tillman's life and what a unique guy he was. He also told the big-picture story of the events that he judged to be relevant to Tillman. And yes, this second part of the story was probably too wide and scope and too political. But I don't think it took anything away from the Tillman part of the story. I don't feel like he left anything out of the Tillman story.
He left out the part where Tillman banged your mom.