i know krakauer personally....
hes spent time at my parents home....
ive broken bread with him numerous times....
first hes a very gifted writer....
second he is irresponsible in his writing style....he identifies himself with the people he writes about and thus writes a biased piece about their trials....
for example he wrote into the wild, very solid book, but he compares a climb he did to what the main character of the book does....what he fails to see is jon was one of the best climbers in the world, the kid who writes about was as inexperienced as it gets....
third, he knew under the banner of heaven was crap....its the book hes been wanting to write for a long time but knew he couldnt get a publisher unless he wrote something good first, into thin air afforded him this....
it was funny, i went with my father, to a book signing he did in utah when he released under the banner of heaven, he was quite embarassed to see us there.....
|