Let me begin this post by saying this: I really like Jon Krakauer. I think he is a great writer. One of his books made my prestigious Top Ten List. He has written 5 books and I have read them. They are each great books and are all hard to put down. I have read two of his books in a day in a half and if you ask Melissa, she will let you know that I am a slow reader. I say all of this because I was greatly disappointed in this book. I am in now way saying that this is not a good book, but for me the tone was completely different and I was disappointed with the tone.
As a reader, one of my favorite things about Krakauer is that that he writes about disturbing events that he has experienced and have changed his life and the lives of the other people involved or he writes about these iconoclasts that have done what a large amount of regular people yearn to do, but never do. He is able to do so as few other are. He gives you all the facts, emotions, and events, but leaves all judgement to you. What you think of the climbers, even Krakauer himself, is left up to you. What you think about Chris McCandless is left up to you. What you think about Mormons, the murders, etc. is left all up to you. However, what you think about Pat Tillman and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is not left up to you. Krakauer serves judgement on all sides. I really disliked this. I did not pick us this book to hear someone bash the Bush administration, the military, war, waste, or Pat Tillman, but to me, that is what I got. It actually saddened me.
To be honest, I have read some reviews of the book and watched several videos of Krakauer and understand why the change of writing style. This book was written and published on much different premise than his other works. The story goes that this book was suppose to be published once, but then Krakauer withdrew it because he just wasn't ready. He took up to four years to write this book. He went to Afghanistan to study. He lived with the military as an embedded journalist. It is just sad, as a reader, to see an author/journalist allow themselves to become so emotionally involved in a story that they lose part of themselves.
After finishing this book, I am not real sure what to think. What exactly does Krakauer think of Tillman because he writes about him as a kind of strong-willed, selfish, talented, juvenile who wasted his life by joining the military to fight W's worthless war, but at same the time writes about this iconoclast, patriot who both hated war, but was weighted down by obligation. But we also see a Tillman who couldn't wait to get into combat. I almost feel that Krakauer feels that going to war was just one more mistake in a long line of them for a Tillman, who is a jock and pretends to like academic discussion. I am confused about when Krakauer would approve of a war or if war is ever justified. I do not know if Krakauer had lived during WWII if he would have thought it "unjust" to go to war against Germany because they never attacked us. I wonder if Krakauer would write this same account if it had been Obama, Biden, and Secretary Gates at the helm instead of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield. I wonder if Krakauer sees that a writer in neither Iraq or Afghanistan could write such a searing and critical account of the government, military, etc and still be walking around in total freedom and making large sums of prophet. Maybe he sees all of these things. Maybe he is himself confused about who Pat Tillman really was. Maybe he is a overwhelmed by the high price of freedom and what war is really like.
Krakauer ends the book with the discussion of Nietzsche's concept of the Ubermensch, or "the last man". He attempts to paint Tillman in this light for at least the ending. This Ubermensch, is a person who is "virtuous, loyal, ambitious, suspicious of received wisdom, disdainful of religious dogma....a connoisseur of the highest highs and...the deepest of sorrows. Tillman was a lot of these, but I wonder why Krakauer ends with this. Was he trying to convince himself that some good was accomplished by a life ended by friendly fire? I am not sure.
If this post feels a little disconnected is because it is. I finished this book a couple weeks ago and have tried writing about it several times. Nothing sounds right. I like Krakauer. I will anxiously await his next book. I hate the Pat Tillman cover-up. I do not understand why it happened, but I do understand. I am saddened by it. I know government and those who serve in it are corrupt and self-seeking. I know the military makes mistakes and at times they are big. It is too big not to. I do not like war. I hate that people have to sacrifice their lives so that I don't have to look over my shoulder or worry if my wife will die of a bombing at the grocery store today. I hate that 6000+ soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, but know that WWII claimed sometimes 50,000 in a single day. I also feel that had 9/11 never occurred, then we would have never gone to Iraq or Afghanistan. I do not really know what to think. I do hope that I can filter it all down into what the key points are. I hope that Krakauer will know that there are patriots in the military who are not wasting their talents there. I think he already knows this.
What did you think of this book? Let me know,
David
No comments:
Post a Comment