Three Cups of Tea

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN
by Susana Fletcher

I don’t think Mother Abbess was speaking literally when she sang to Maria, “Climb every mountain, ford every stream… ‘til you find your dream.” But ever since Greg Mortenson took her at her word, the world is the better for it. “Three Cups of Tea,” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, tells Mortenson’s recent history: how he went from a homeless mountain climber to a revered and effective co-ed school builder in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson’s endearing character and Relin’s compelling narrative, although it reads a little rough in places, is an amazing story of conviction and determination.

Greg Mortenson was a nurse in California, and worked just long enough to pay bills and plan for his next climb. When his sister died in 1992, the devastated Mortenson made the decision to climb K2, the world’s second largest mountain in the Karakorams of Pakistan, in her honor. In heartbreaking defeat, he found himself lost, without his guide or supplies, and nearly dead. He stumbled into the remote Korphe village, where the frightened women covered their faces. He writes, “No foreigner had ever been to Korphe before.” After seven weeks in the care of the Korphe, he promised to build a school for the village, a school that Pakistani girls were allowed to attend.

Mortenson takes us through the painful and laborious first school building, and the lessons he learned about himself and the Pakistani people. “Sit down. And shut your mouth,” Haji Ali, the village leader said to a micromanaging Mortenson. “You’re making everyone crazy.” Mortenson’s humbled and persistent heart is rewarded. He trusts and empowers the locals, and they in turn, devote themselves to the task.

“Three Cups of Tea” is a page turner from the victorious and joyful moments to the most frightening and disappointing. He comes against some serious opposition, including two fatwas and a kidnapping, but through Mortenson’s generous donors, emotional support from his devoted wife, his commitment to education as means to promote peace, and his quirky local crew, he builds 58 schools by the time “Three Cups of Tea” went to print.

The world according to Greg Mortenson is one where people change their own destiny, where oppression and adversity means finding another way, and where one American with the right heart attitude can be a living legend in the footsteps of Johnny Appleseed, spreading seeds of tolerance and knowledge throughout the world, beginning with central Asia. If you appreciate efficiency and effectiveness in non-profit endeavors, you'll want to keep a checkbook on your nightstand, right next to your bookmark.

THREE CUPS OF TEA
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
368 pp. Penguin. $15.00 paperback.


Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

The Book Thief

DEATH'S SENTENCES: POSITIVE VERDICT

by Susana Fletcher

Do we need another telling of lives affected by World War II? Yes. We do. As long as Marcus Zusak is doing the talking. “The Book Thief”, Zusak’s latest novel, isn’t like one you’ve read before. It’s as if C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape met up with Lois Lowry’s “Number the Stars” cast, of youth fiction fame. The result is a smart and endearing story of a preteen who, although she steals a few books, is thoughtful and selfless, and the alternating curt and empathetic narration of Death – yes, Death – who despite our preconceptions of the reaper, makes for a good tour guide, reassuringly stating, “I urge you – don’t be afraid. I’m nothing if not fair.”

Liesel Meminger is a foster child in Molching, Germany during the Third Reich. She is cared for by the Hubermans, empty nesters who can barely stand each other. Hans is a house painter and accordion player. Rosa takes in laundry, makes inedible pea soup, and calls Liesel mostly “saumensch”, a German insult relating to the word “pig”.

It’s a rough start for Liesel, with daily nightmares and foster mom Rosa’s cold demeanor, but the young girl finds friendship in the quiet and patient Hans, whom she calls Papa, and the delightfully deranged kid next door, Rudy Steiner, who thinks he’s Jesse Owens. Zusak uses the characters to pause the larger and more dismal picture and focus on small joys. In one such instance, Rudy and Liesel find a coin in the street and take it to do what kids do when they find money. “Mixed candy, please.” Being that the coin was only a pfennig, they end up sharing a single piece of hard candy, taking ten sucks each before passing it back to the other. They walk home, red mouths and all, smiling along the way. “The day had been a great one, and Nazi Germany was a wondrous place.” The diametric theme drives the shaky graph-line of ups and downs. Death even delineates the book’s thematic quakes, “the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

Circumstances soon bring “Papa” Hans face to face with a promise he made during the First World War. And so the Hubermans hide a Jew in their basement. “Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.” The layers of friendship and family are made rich by Max’s arrival, and the range of life and death is deepened.

Zusak’s creative format and precise language provide interest and momentum. The narrator, with quick bites like, “A fire would be lit. A book would be stolen,” seemingly gives everything away, only to carry the reader to the next beautiful moment when nothing was actually spoiled but everything is realized and the rhythm of the book beats on in its steady, throbbing, idiosyncratic way.

Although the full effect of Nazi book burnings, the marches of emaciated Dachau Jews, and Hitler Youth rallies are not hidden from view, “The Book Thief” is not gratuitous; after all, it is a young adult fiction, albeit one that should be read by adults, too. It assumes the reader to fill in the blanks, and is as much a story about life as it is about death. Just as the characters all find their diversion somehow – Death in colors of the sky, Max in weather reports, and Liesel her solace in words – so the reader finds wonderment in the worthy hearts of those pictured in “The Book Thief”, if only to temporarily distract from the backdrop of atrocities that must also be told.

THE BOOK THIEF
By Markus Zusak Illustrated.

552 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $16.95


The Book Thief