“Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman” by Jon Krakauer

Yay or Nay?

Yay! (63%)

Consensus: The reviews cover the extremes of love and true dislike, but most feel it is disturbing yet interesting book.

Description: The image of Pat Tillman, a serious young man with chiseled features and intense, determined eyes, became a symbol of the War on Terror after the football-star-turned-soldier was killed by friendly fire while on patrol in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Surprisingly, Tillman had given up a multimillion-dollar contract with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers in June 2002, a decision he made … [more]

Shop online for “Where Men Win Glory” by Jon Krakauer:

12 Book Reviews for “Where Men Win Glory” by Jon Krakauer

Among the many shadows Jon Krakauer illuminates in his compelling and dispiriting book, “Where Men Win Glory,” is the commonness of fratricide in high-tech warfare…. Krakauer — whose forensic studies of the Emersonian Man in books such as Into Thin Air and Into the Wild yield so much insight — has turned in a beautiful bit of reporting, documenting Tillman’s life with journals and interviews with those close to him.

Published the 11th day of September, 2009 in Los Angeles Times | Reviewed by Dan Neil | Full Review
The outline of Tillman’s story is well-known, but the details Krakauer tallies, based on reporting trips to Afghanistan and interviews with many of the soldiers who participated in the fratricidal firefight that killed Tillman, give this story the weight it deserves…. Krakauer has made sure that this shameful episode will not fade into obscurity and that Pat Tillman will be remembered for the man he truly was — and not as the faux symbol of a failed policy.
Published the 10th day of September, 2009 in The Oregonian | Reviewed by John Strawn | Full Review
Krakauer tells Tillman’s story without journalistic remove…. It isn’t easy to see how a man with a successful NFL career in front of him could step away from it to enter the war, but Krakauer builds his foundation and the decision becomes understandable and admirable.
Published the 13th day of September, 2009 in The Denver Post | Reviewed by Robin Vidimos | Full Review
Until Page 274, when Krakauer begins presenting the details of Tillman’s death, the text covers lots of familiar ground, repeats the cornerstones of Tillman’s mostly exemplary character way too often, and—while well written at the sentence and paragraph levels—is structured awkwardly…. After Page 274, the narrative is far more focused—on the craven coverup of the friendly fire death and the various attempts to expose the coverup.
Published the 20th day of September, 2009 in San Francisco Chronicle | Reviewed by Steve Weinberg | Full Review
Seeking events and decisions that led Tillman into battle, Krakauer … inserts cogently crafted chapters on Afghanistan’s modern war-torn history, the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the U.S. response to 9/11 and the war in Iraq…. Krakauer explores some threads that he never convincingly connects to influencing Tillman—from the large Afghan community in the Bay Area, where Tillman grew up, to the controversial outcome of the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election.
Published the 29th day of September, 2009 in USA Today | Reviewed by Don Oldenburg | Full Review
Krakauer’s book is … an exhaustive examination of America’s political and military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq…. We could do with fewer reminders of the young football star’s robust masculinity or his alpha-male, superior-warrior status.
Published the 27th day of September, 2009 in The Boston Globe | Reviewed by John Dufresne | Full Review
[The] book falls flat — not least because he is more eager to launch an inquisition into the crimes of the Bush administration than to explore this single extraordinary life…. This is most unfortunate because the parts of the book where Krakauer does tell Tillman’s story play to the author’s strengths.
Published the 13th day of September, 2009 in The Washington Post | Reviewed by Andrew Exum | Full Review
The biggest problem with “Where Men Win Glory” is that nearly all the drama and import — Tillman’s death and the cover-up — are saved for the last hundred pages…. Unfortunately, too many of the details of Tillman’s life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential.
Published the 8th day of September, 2009 in The New York Times | Reviewed by Dexter Filkins | Full Review
Mr. Krakauer cobbled together his book in a spirit of desperation. Though he set out in search of Mr. Tillman’s whole story, he didn’t find what he was looking for…. One effect of “Where Men Win Glory,” a disappointing book that is still apt to be popular both because of its subject’s gutsy charisma and its author’s renown, will be to keep this American tragedy very public indeed.
Published the 23rd day of September, 2009 in The New York Times | Reviewed by Janet Maslin | Full Review
Krakauer seamlessly pieces together the interviews, the testimony and the journals to tell the story of an extraordinary man faced with extraordinary circumstances, much the same way he did in two of his previous books, “Into Thin Air” and “Into the Wild.”
Published the 11th day of October, 2009 in Chicago Sun-Times | Reviewed by Kevin Allen | Full Review
In his meticulously researched new book, Jon Krakauer uses his straightforward-but-engaging storytelling to lay out the litany of missteps…. “Where Men Win Glory” also provides a refresher course on developments in Afghanistan and Iraq, bin Laden’s strategies and U.S. military involvement, all wrapped around Tillman’s compelling tale.
Published the 1st day of November, 2009 in Pittsburg Post-Gazette | Reviewed by Virginia Linn | Full Review
“Where Men Win Glory” is a muddle of a book, but perhaps its confused motives and kitchen-sink narrative match the Global War On Terror for futility. As the last few years have shown, the United States is also the victim of friendly fire, and the need to assign blame continues to consume us.
Published the 22nd day of October, 2009 in The Onion A.V. Club | Reviewed by Donna Bowman | Full Review

Other books you might also like:

	“Lyndon B. Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 36th President, 1963-1969″ by Charles Peters Average Score: 72%(6 Reviews)
	“The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” by Michael Lewis Average Score: 79%(38 Reviews)
	“Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend” by James S. Hirsch Average Score: 75%(17 Reviews)
	“The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama” by David Remnick Average Score: 78%(23 Reviews)
	“Spoken from the Heart” by Laura Bush Average Score: 69%(10 Reviews)