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belinda_frisch 's review for:
Columbine
by Dave Cullen
The Columbine shooting happened five years after I graduated high school, when I wouldn’t feel the tangible “school shooting panic” but was close enough in age to identify with the students and with the story being spun in the media. I hadn’t understood that the attacks on Columbine weren’t as portrayed; these weren’t intentional shootings targeting “jocks” or the popular kids. It wasn’t about bullying or being bullied. This was an attempted bombing targeting everyone.
I picked up Dave Cullen’s Columbine in preparation for reading Sue Klebold’s autobiography. I needed to understand what happened so I could put her feelings into context, to be able to absolutely say that she isn’t a mother in denial of what her son did, and that her story has some credibility.
Dylan Klebold’s name is invoked (maybe even first) as the perpetrator of the Columbine attack, but Eric Harris was clearly the instigator; a mentally ill teen bent on destruction and indiscriminant annihilation. Dylan only wanted to be dead. That doesn’t excuse him, but illustrates the damage caused by his and Eric’s friendship. There’s an inherent sadness that comes from realizing a suicidal teen engaged in this behavior at the behest of a certifiable psychopath.
Dylan could have easily been any friend I ever had. Stories like Columbine and those about the West Memphis Three resonate because I hadn’t fit into the high school mold; rather I enjoyed not fitting in. I knew a suicide. I understood his desperation. I’m sad for the Klebold family, and having parented teens, understand how they could’ve seen Dylan’s behavior as teen angst from which he would recover.
Reading the survivor stories, including (and maybe especially) those of the victims’ families, makes it hard not to be angry with someone, though. I sympathize with their need to place blame. The book states several times that people couldn’t be angry with Dylan and Eric because of their suicides, leaving their parents to absorb the hatred. Neither boy was raised in a bad home. They did get into trouble, and were punished accordingly. If there’s blame to place for not keeping a closer eye it would be on Eric’s parents (whose denial of their son’s mental illness was apparently stronger than the repeated warnings that something terrible was about to happen). Eric reportedly bought the supplies, the guns, and assembled and hid the bombs. He made public threats against several people and engaged in the kind of behavior that, in hindsight, makes his motive (pure destruction) the easier of the two to explain. Dylan’s compulsion remains less clear.
Realizing how much planning led up to this really does make one question if the single useful thing to come out of Columbine (and we do have to learn from tragic events to prevent future similar occurrences) was the decision to take teen threats seriously. As early as two years before the attacks, Eric had begun planning. There were plenty of warning signs, all chalked up to and excused as teen foolishness. Dave Cullen’s Columbine forces deep thought on all aspects of what happened in 1999, and respectfully remembers those lost and those who have since fought every day to survive. An impactful, concise account from all angles, it’s clear why his is the definitive work on the subject.
I picked up Dave Cullen’s Columbine in preparation for reading Sue Klebold’s autobiography. I needed to understand what happened so I could put her feelings into context, to be able to absolutely say that she isn’t a mother in denial of what her son did, and that her story has some credibility.
Dylan Klebold’s name is invoked (maybe even first) as the perpetrator of the Columbine attack, but Eric Harris was clearly the instigator; a mentally ill teen bent on destruction and indiscriminant annihilation. Dylan only wanted to be dead. That doesn’t excuse him, but illustrates the damage caused by his and Eric’s friendship. There’s an inherent sadness that comes from realizing a suicidal teen engaged in this behavior at the behest of a certifiable psychopath.
Dylan could have easily been any friend I ever had. Stories like Columbine and those about the West Memphis Three resonate because I hadn’t fit into the high school mold; rather I enjoyed not fitting in. I knew a suicide. I understood his desperation. I’m sad for the Klebold family, and having parented teens, understand how they could’ve seen Dylan’s behavior as teen angst from which he would recover.
Reading the survivor stories, including (and maybe especially) those of the victims’ families, makes it hard not to be angry with someone, though. I sympathize with their need to place blame. The book states several times that people couldn’t be angry with Dylan and Eric because of their suicides, leaving their parents to absorb the hatred. Neither boy was raised in a bad home. They did get into trouble, and were punished accordingly. If there’s blame to place for not keeping a closer eye it would be on Eric’s parents (whose denial of their son’s mental illness was apparently stronger than the repeated warnings that something terrible was about to happen). Eric reportedly bought the supplies, the guns, and assembled and hid the bombs. He made public threats against several people and engaged in the kind of behavior that, in hindsight, makes his motive (pure destruction) the easier of the two to explain. Dylan’s compulsion remains less clear.
Realizing how much planning led up to this really does make one question if the single useful thing to come out of Columbine (and we do have to learn from tragic events to prevent future similar occurrences) was the decision to take teen threats seriously. As early as two years before the attacks, Eric had begun planning. There were plenty of warning signs, all chalked up to and excused as teen foolishness. Dave Cullen’s Columbine forces deep thought on all aspects of what happened in 1999, and respectfully remembers those lost and those who have since fought every day to survive. An impactful, concise account from all angles, it’s clear why his is the definitive work on the subject.