Everyone’s “Cup of Tea”
Posted by: Ted Balcom
I haven’t yet come across anyone who hasn’t enjoyed reading Three Cups of Tea (TCOT) or who thinks this book, a nonfiction account of an adventurer’s decision to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan after an ill-fated mountain climbing expedition in which he almost perished, doesn’t provide surefire discussion material. A few weeks ago, Gary wrote in this blog about his experience of leading a discussion of TCOT, and now it’s my turn.
One of the interesting things about the book is that it has two authors, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, but it’s really Mortenson’s story as written by Relin. Mortenson is the protagonist, and the tale is written in the third person. When my book group recently discussed this book, we wondered about how Mortenson and Relin worked together to create the work. It’s an extremely detailed account, and it’s almost as if Relin was at Mortenson’s side, taking notes, every step of the way.
Mortenson doesn’t come off as a totally admirable guy, although no one can dispute he’s very courageous and very committed. But he allows the book to show some of his character flaws, in spite of all the amazing things he’s achieved. I started my discussion by asking group members to talk about how they would describe him to someone who didn’t know who he was and what he had accomplished. The group was evenly divided in commenting upon his determination and integrity as well as his more infuriating qualities, which they felt would make him a difficult husband and father. These responses even led to a side discussion of what it would be like to be one of his children — with participants remarking on the irony involved in the contrast between his dedication to the schoolchildren he helps and his own offspring, who get far less attention.
Particularly interesting to the book group was the realization that it is extremely important to understand the culture of a country before one plunges in to offer assistance. Was Mortenson naive at the outset of his endeavor? Indeed, but this aspect of his personality didn’t seem to bother him or hold him back — he’d had an unusual upbringing with noncomformist parents and perhaps that had given him a special preparation for the challenge he so daringly embraced.
Many book groups focus on fiction for a long period of time and then decide they might like to take a leap into nonfiction territory. This might be a good book to start with. Many of the female readers in my group commented that TCOT is an excellent “guy’s book,” one they thought they could easily recommend to their husbands and get them to read. That might be another reason to choose this book for your group, if you are interested in drawing male readers into the circle. At any rate, book group members of both genders are probably going to be mightily intrigued by reading about what Greg Mortenson tried to do for the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan and what he ultimately accomplished.
