So I have never read Three Cups of Tea, so I am limited to speak on it directly, but it always struck me as some Ugly American/White Savior nonsense at one extreme or misguided American charity at the less extreme end.
This book is a response to that book and mostly involves following up the sources in the biographical parts of that book and then a more financial investigation into the nonprofit work. Essentially, Krakauer comes to the conclusion that Mortenson vastly exaggerated about his stories about being kidnapped in Afghanistan, mismanaged and quite likely defrauded or at least took liberties with the nonprofit money, and ultimately barely delivered on his promises to build schools (building a few, at much higher cost [therefore misstating effectiveness and efficiencies in fundraising efforts], and never really keeping them staffed).
I read some of the reactions to this book, and they mostly range from being angry at Mortenson to being very defensive and critical of Krakauer. Without a doubt, Krakauer is mad in this book and is grinding an axe here. But also, he’s probably not wrong.
The biggest takeaway I get from the criticism of this book is that most people want to chalk up the inaccuracies to the biography as exaggerations of memoir and even go as far as to call Krakauer naive for believing it. This is a) dumb and a bad criticism and b) participatory in the same kinds of racism, Orientalism, and Islamophobia that Krakauer is accusing Mortenson in.
One, if you’re lying in a memoir in order to raise money for your charity (and yourself)….that’s beyond “narrative license,” it’s fraud. Two, if you trust a single, erratic White man’s account of a story over the multiple accounts of various of the Afghani people who were also there, that’s racist.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Deceit-Mortenson-Humanitarian/dp/0307948765/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15AHCMRGTDIBF&keywords=three+cups+of+deceit&qid=1557589931&s=gateway&sprefix=three+cups+of+%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1)
