The literary world is somewhat of a small world and relatively scandal free. The last scandal of recent memory was that of James Frey and his "memoir that really wasn't a memoir." Of course that scandal was magnified because of Frey's connection to the Queen of Everything, Oprah.Well as of Sunday night at 6:00pm, when 60 Minutes aired across the nation, James Frey owes Jon Krakauer a BIG OLE "thank you". For it was Jon Krakauer who has shed some light on an author that could be considered far more deceitful than James Frey. Greg Mortenson.
Millions of people around the world have not only read Three Cups of Tea, but they have donated money, with the assumption that their money was going towards building schools, and educating the women and children of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Well guess what. *Maybe* your money went towards the school or maybe they went to the millions of dollars that Mortenson withdrew from the CAI foundation, the foundation he treated as if it were his own personal ATM.
The allegations of mismanagement are not to be taken lightly. Jon Krakauer is a highly respected author. He is a man I hold in the highest esteem and he took great lengths to research and document his suspicions. You can read his 75 page report on www.byliner.com. Once you read his findings you will see he is not writing this out of some spiteful jealousy, Krakauer himself donated over $75,000 to the CAI before stopping his donations when some deceitful practices started coming to light.
I did NOT read Three Cups of Tea - fiction or not, it is not really my type of book. But I love a good scandal, so I jumped on the Byliner story. I know the report was a free download through April 20, 2011. As an avid reader and an avid supporter of good books, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Jon Krakauer. If you do not get a chance to read Three Cups of Deceit, check out the 60 Minutes story.
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