Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,   ISBN:9780385522267

Customer Rating: 

Jon Krakauer knows how to tell a story, and his latest book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, presents the heroic and tragic life of an amazing person. Most readers are likely to know the outline of Pat's life story: the NFL player who left fame and wealth to enlist in the Army following 9/11, and who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Thanks to Krakauer's account, readers can know more about the character of Tillman, his respect for others, and the ways in which he was comfortable as a nonconformist, always testing the limits of his abilities. As Krakauer presented Pat from childhood on, I became fascinated by the building of character over time, and became saddened by the ways in which Tillman did not receive the respect he deserved, especially from the military leaders who tried to manipulate the truth about his death.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

Customer Rating: 

Pat Tillman was a more complex person than I expected and his journal entries, which Krakauer quotes extensively are fascinating. The author rehashes a lot of the history of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but there is quite a bit of information that is new to me. It's interesting to see how many of the bad reivews (the 1's and 2's) are based on ideology, not the book's merits.

Customer Rating: 

The people that pan this book or call it "flat" are those that are offended by some of Krakauer's political comments. Do not get distracted by this as it is a riveting and well researched book that is hard to put down when you start it. Pat Tillman was an exceptional person that Krakauer elevates to a modern day Nietzschean superman status. He outlines all the characteristics practically from childhood that qualify him for this special status. What's troubling about the book is that Krakauer would have us believe that those that actually pulled the trigger and killed Tillman and the pilots of the US planes that killed 17 American soldiers in the Jessica Lynch rescue in Iraq have no remorse over their actions. I doubt that and certainly hope that it is not true.

Customer Rating: 

Kraukauer does an excellent job with this investigation. His conclusion is very disturbing. By avoiding the truth, the family and the United States were misled. Kraukauer and the family would probably say we were lied to. The book describes the actions of many leaders, at the operational and strategic levels, that did not "race to the truth" and the consequences that were, and are, very detrimental to the American's confidence in former Secretary Rumsfeld and the military.

Customer Rating: 

I was looking forward to reading this book when I saw that Krakauer would be writing about Tillman. I knew of Tillman from his days at ASU while I was still living in Arizona. I felt like Krakauer was the right guy to give Tillman's story the proper treatment. In his other books, he had written compelling portrayals of thrill-seekers who flirted with danger and lost. It was left up to the reader to decide whether these men were victims of circumstances or just of their own recklessness.
It seemed like Krakauer would be the perfect author to articulate the complex character that Pat Tillman was.
Instead, I feel like I got too much of Krakauer's indictment of the war. The amount of space given to the military's failures takes away from what should have been a book about Tillman and why he walked away from that dream NFL contract.
I'm not sure that he did this story justice, and I would not recommend this book.