Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been a big fan of Jon Krakauer's work over the years, and was eagerly anticipating "Where Men Win Glory" when I learned the life of Pat Tillman would meet his keen reporting and storytelling. After finishing the book, I came away sorely disappointed both in the product and - more deeply - in Mr. Krakauer himself. The story of Pat Tillman is a difficult one. His life was tragically short, and both he and his family took great pains to protect his privacy, particularly once he made the decision to enlist in the Army. Once in the military, he joined the Rangers, which is traditionally one of the armed services' more close-knit communities with missions that are usually classified. In hindsight then, perhaps it is best that Mr. Tillman's biography would not be written in such close proximity to his life and service. It is with this qualification that I found "Where Men Win Glory" painfully short in insight and content into Mr. Tillman's life. Somehow it came as no surprise to read in the acknowledgements that Mr. Krakauer had no assistance from the Mr. Tillman's parents; much of his input came from Mr. Tillman's widow. That brings up my second critique of the book overall. Where one of Mr. Krakauer's hallmarks - even in his controversial "Under the Banner of Heaven" - was balanced and thorough research, "Where Men Win Glory" seemed to be both poorly researched. Worse, what reference material he did glean information from was from highly partisan, agenda-driven sources, which I will address later. But this book suffers from the seeming lack of balance and in-depth research, which further diluted the end product and did not provide the complete picture of Mr. Tillman that the reader was anticipating. Mr. Krakauer does have a knack for stepping in and out of the specific focus of his books to provide the reader a broader history that facilitates more understanding and foundation for the events at hand. To some extent, he did that here with telling portions of the more recent history of Afghanistan. But with the lack of biographical information to work with, he leaned on this tactic far too much, and took it several steps too far. The aforementioned shortcomings lead to the biggest disappointment and objectionable part of "Where Men Win Glory". That is, Mr. Krakauer essentially takes one life and masks it in a book that devolved into a hate-filled narrative of both the Bush administration and the military. I am willing to concede that the Bush administration was not without its flaws, that the Army mishandled the investigation into Mr. Tillman's death via fratricide, and that Mr. Tillman himself did not view war and his service with the same patriotic notions than many who have - and are - serving. That being said, Mr. Tillman's own views seemed to be used as a mechanism to enhance - or justify - Mr. Krakauer's personal hatred for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, the War on Terror, and the military at-large. What little reference material he did use and cite all came from partisan sources who were critical of these same "players". If he had just kept true to providing the Afghani history and Mr. Tillman himself, the book would still have been one of Mr. Krakauer's weaker efforts, but more palatable to the reader. Instead, it comes off as Mr. Krakauer's screed to pile on with another partisan indictment of those people and events that he did not agree with. In doing so - intentionally or not - he wound up cheapening the legacy of Pat Tillman. I had read about a year ago that Mr. Krakauer was not happy with his first attempt at this book, so it was unclear that it would ever come out. Perhaps he should have scrapped the project altogether at that point. But after reading "Where Men Win Glory", it seemed that Mr. Krakauer had the larger goal of adding his voice to the partisan, politically-divisive environment of our times. Perhaps Mr. Tillman's parents were right to not participate in this book after all, even if they too were critical of the military and Bush administration. In the end, "Where Men Win Glory" is Mr. Krakauer's worst, most disappointing book by a large margin. He scrapped all the hallmarks that made him a great writer and did a disservice to an interesting life in the process. As time goes on, I think the greater disappointment will be with Mr. Krakauer than it will be this book. I expected far better.